Chance in chains; a story of Monte Carlo

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'Id Corner Book

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CHANCE IN CHAINS

IN FRONT OF BASIL GREGORY WAS A PILE OF GOLD.

CHANCE IN CHAINS

A STORY OF MONTE CARLO

BY

GUY THORNE

Author of "When it was Dark," " The Drunkard," btc.

t'

With Frontispiece from a Drawing by
HOWARD T. GRAVES

flew 13orft

STURGIS & WALTON

COMPANY

1914

Copyright, 1914
Bt STURGIS & WALTON COMPANY

Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1914

CHANCE IN CHAINS

CHANCE IN CHAINS

CHAPTER I

It was nine o'clock at night, and the thirty huge
dynamos of the Societe Generale Electrique of
Paris were nearly all at work. In the great glass-
roofed hall of the Mont Parnasse Central Power
Station blue-bloused workmen moved quietly over
the shining floors of white concrete, pausing now
and then by this or that purring, spitting monster,
scrutinising the whirring, glittering copper drums,
listening with experienced ears for the slightest
variation in the deep wasp-like hum, touching a
lever here, adjusting a screw there, or oiling a
bearing with tin cans beaked like a snipe.

Huge arc lamps hanging from the ceiling cast a
steel-blue radiance over the hall, a radiance so cruel
and intense that the shadows of the machinery
which were thrown upon the floor were as black
and sharply defined as fretwork of ebony.

3

4 CHANCE IN CHAINS

The incandescent lamps which showed above
each of the three great switchboards of brass and
vulcanite, although they were burning at full
power, glowed orange in the stupendous light
from above.

The monster dynamos were making light for
half eastern Paris. The Gare Mont Parnasse,
from where trains were running every two minutes
with late business folk to Meudon, Sevres and
Versailles, was lit from this room. The dinner
tables of the foreign Ambassadors on the Quai
Austerlitz were illuminated by favour of these
serene, relentless marvels, and, across the Seine,
many a glittering cafe upon the heights of the
pleasure city Montmartre were switching on hun-
dreds of fresh lights in the expectation of their
supper custom — even as a new dynamo was started
to cope with the extra strain.

At one side of the hall a few concrete steps led
into the little glass-fronted room where the super-
intendent engineer on duty always sat.

The room was some twelve feet square, walled
with white tiles like a model dairy, and from where
he sat at a deal table the engineer could look out

CHANCE IN CHAINS 5

into every part of the hall. In the hall itself it
was cold, though the electricians felt but little of it
owing to the fresh ozone constantly liberated from
the dynamos into the air. Outside, in Paris, it
was bitterly cold — a damp and foggy cold of late
November. But in the room of the superintend-
ent engineer an electric stove burned brightly and
warmed it.

Two people were in the room now, Emile Des-
champs and Basil Gregory, both of them employed
by the Societe Generale.

Deschamps was a young man of about twenty-
six. His jet black hair, closely cropped to a
rather large and well-shaped head, together with
the swarthy tint of his complexion, proclaimed
him of the South, a veritable son of the Midi from
Orange, Avignon, or Marseilles. He wore a small
black moustache, and his long-jfingered right hand
was deeply stained with the juice of cheap ciga-
rettes.

The man who sat opposite to him, at the other
end of the table, was unmistakably English. He
was smoking a briar pipe, and though his clothes
— neither new nor fashionably cut — were dis-

6 CHANCE IN CHAINS

tinctly Parisian, his fair hair, blue eyes and rather
heavy yellow moustache were eloquent of his na-
tionality. He was bending over a large sheet of
drawings on tracing paper with strained and care-
ful attention.

He looked up suddenly, removed the pipe from
his mouth, and began speaking in a torrent of
French so perfect that he might very well have
passed for a Parisian.

"Emile, I think I have it at last. The position
of neutrality varies with the type of the machine
owing to the fact of armature reaction, which
distorts the magnetic field. We must therefore
connect the commutating poles in series with the
armature, when their windings will carry the full
armature current."

Deschamps nodded, thought for a moment, and
a quick technical discussion began between the
two men, the sheet of drawings being pushed from
one to the other, marked and annotated in the
margin with pencil.

Suddenly Deschamps leant back in his chair.

"Yes," he said, "there can be no doubt about it.
We're on the track, if we have not already dis-

CHANCE IN CHAINS 7

covered the most revolutionary theory in wireless
telegraphy that the world has known as yet I
What we know now, at nine o'clock on a Novem-
ber evening in a power station in Paris, might
alter the whole course of life and society all over
the world."

The Englishman nodded, with less excited but
perfectly sincere agreement.

"Very well, then," cried Deschamps, "will the
world ever benefit by our three years' work, our
marvellous discovery? No I We're two poor
devils, junior engineers of this company on two
hundred and fifty francs a month. In all France
no one will listen to us, and in all England also,
as you have discovered. And why?"

"Oh, what is the use, Emile?" Gregory replied,
cutting short his friend. "We have talked it over
too many times. It's no good making a song
about it. We have not got the money to carry
out our experiments thoroughly and to construct
our models, twenty thousand pounds — five hun-
dred thousand francs, my friend! And as we
shall never get that, no one will listen to us and it
will remain for someone else to make our dis-

8 CHANCE IN CHAINS

covery when we're — either when we're dead or
still nursing Thierry dynamos at a few francs a
day."

As he spoke he rolled up the sheet of drawings
and, with a deep sigh, thrust it into the inner
pocket of his coat.

"Come along," he said; "we had better be get-
ting home. It is more comfortable there than
here, at any rate; and there's still one bottle of
Magon."

They left the little alcoved room, walked slowly
down the hall, with a word or two to the foreman,
and passed out into the ofRce, where the engineer
who was to succeed them and watch through the
night was smoking with the timekeeper.

Then, arm in arm, they passed into Paris.

They were a strange couple, these two. Basil
Gregory was the son of a Cambridge tutor, who
early in his career had gone to Paris as the Eng-
lish master of a famous Lycee. He had married
a Frenchwoman, who had died five years after
Basil's birth. The boy had been brought up in
Paris until he was old enough to go to one of the

CHANCE IN CHAINS 9

lesser public schools of England, which was all
his father could afford for him. He won a science
scholarship from his school to Cambridge, had
worked hard and played hard at the University,
until an unfortunate encounter with a proctor dur-
ing one of the evenings of the "May Week" had
caused him to be sent down for ever and a day.
It was a stupid affair enough, but the hot-headed
young man's treatment of the guardian of Uni-
versity morals had been too flagrant to be passed
over.

Basil had returned to Paris, spent six months as
a pupil in the school for electrical engineers, and
had finally been apprenticed to the Societe Gen-
erale. At the end of his apprenticeship his father
had died, leaving him his blessing and a couple of
hundred pounds. From that time to this, and he
was now exactly the same age as his friend
Deschamps, the young man had worked as a
junior engineer at the central power station. His
salary was ten pounds a month. There were in-
numerable people before him, and his prospects
seemed absolutely nil.

lo CHANCE IN CHAINS

As for Deschamps, he was the son of a bank-
rupt wine merchant of Marseilles. With a re-
markable taste for science and an especial interest
in electricity, he had come to Paris — after an ap-
prenticeship at the electrical station of Monte
Carlo — and was in precisely the same state as
Basil Gregory. The two young men had be-
come friends at once. Each recognised in the
other a brain above the average. Both of them
were intensely interested in their work, both of
them had the temper of mind which flouts ac-
cepted theories and ever presses forward to new
and epoch-making discovery. They were pi-
oneers, and knew it. Without conceit, without
any self-deception, they were quietly certain of
their own powers. They had worked together,
spending every moment of their spare time and
every franc they could afford upon a new and
original development in wireless telegraphy.
They had arrived at a point when they were both
convinced that they had wrested an entirely new
secret from Nature, and at this point they found,
as so many inventors and pioneers have found in

CHANCE IN CHAINS ii

the past, that the way was absolutely barred for
want of capital. In their hands they were sure
they held the talisman of fortune and undying
renown. It was useless to them for want of
money.

This night in Paris was bitter cold. Moreover,
an infrequent and dreaded occurrence in Paris, a
dense fog lay over the city. These Parisian fogs
are not the sulphurous, pea-soup discomforts of
London, but they are almost as unpleasant, and
quite as upsetting to ordinary life and comfort.
A dank, grey mist, opaque and wet, seems to rise
from the Seine, spread outwards in evergrowing
density and chill, until all the central quarter of
Paris is hidden and throttled by it.

''DiableP' Deschamps said, coughing, as they
left the power station behind them. " line vraie
brume Anglazsey

Gregory shrugged his shoulders. "It is pretty
bad," he said, "and we can't see a yard in front of
our noses. Still, if you had experienced a London
'particular,' Emile — well, then you would know !"

There was a silence between the young men as

12 CHANCE IN CHAINS

they tramped away to the Latin Quarter, where
they shared a room in a little fifth-rate hotel not
far from the Quai Voltaire. The night was bit-
terly cold, certainly not inviting conversation, and
the thoughts of the pair were cold and bitter in
harmony with the night. Genius is rarely un-
conscious of its power. Basil Gregory and Emile
Deschamps were not in the least conceited, but
each knew in his heart of hearts that already they
approached those heights upon which Tesla and
Edison dwelt. They saw the top of the moun-
tain bathed in glorious sunshine, but between
them and it there was a great gulf only to be
bridged by money.

Basil Gregory's case was, perhaps, the worse of
the two, for Basil was in love. Ethel McMahon,
the pretty Irish girl, who was English mistress in
a young ladies' school in the Fauberg St. Honore,
held all his heart, but she, like him, was poor and
friendless, and out of her wretched salary sup-
ported an invalid mother, who was a martyr to
one of the cruellest forms of arthritis.

The young man ground his teeth in fury against
Fate, as he strode by his companion's side. Sud-

CHANCE IN CHAINS 13

denly he began to talk rapidly, and with a true
Parisian vehemence.

"I shouldn't mind so much, Emile, if we wanted
money for the reason that such a lot of fellows of
our age want it. But we don't. We don't want
to play the giddy goat" — faire la bete was the
French he used — "we don't want to enjoy our-
selves in the usual silly way. We only want the
world to recognise us for what we are. We want
to benefit the whole world, Emile, and for our-
selves all we ask is recognition and sufficient to
live in comfort."

"It's true," Deschamps replied. "For mj^self,
a flat in central Paris, a motor car to take me
quickly to my experimental works, money to
travel to America to see all the developments of
electricity there — that is all I ask."

"It's much the same with me," the other re-
turned, "except that I want to get married as well
and give poor dear Ethel a happy life, and her
mother the comforts that she needs. And yet —
oh, I'd give anything, anything, to get the money
for our experiments."

Deschamps shrugged his shoulders. "Well, we

14 CHANCE IN CHAINS

cannot rob a church," he said, "and the penalties
for any sort of burglary are most unpleasant in
France. We must even wait upon Fortune.
After all, mon ami, our chance may yet come.
Every day we read in the newspapers of strange
strokes of fortune coming to people. I cannot be-
lieve that we shall never have our opportunity.
Who knows !" — he threw out an arm with one of
the theatrical gestures habitual to men of the
South — "who knows but that this very night some
very great thing will happen to us ! Faith ! faith !
We must believe, and Fortune will be kind to us.
She ever turns away coldly from a faint and de-
spairing heart I"

He took his fancy and embroidered it in a
stream of words so vivid, hopeful and full
of fancy that he half persuaded the more phleg-
matic Englishman by his side. Basil listened in
silence, warmed a little, and was not quite so
hopeless as he had been. Then, out of mere
shame at his own feeling, he stemmed the other's
torrent of words.

"That is all very well," he said grimly, "but
meanwhile Dame Fortune seems to have deserted

CHANCE IN CHAINS 15

us worse than ever. While we have been talking
nonsense we have missed our way, and if you can
tell me where we are, or whereabouts the Hotel
Buonaparte may be lying, I shall be extremely
obliged to you. Monsieur Deschamps of the rosy
hopes !"

The two men stopped. It was as Gregory had
said. That they were near the Seine was obvious,
because of the intenser thickness of the fog, but
there was no doubt that they had entirely lost
their direction. The white mist was as thick as
wool, wet, motionless, and icy. Where they
stood, upon the pavement, and half-way down a
mean, narrow street, the blurred contours of which
were perfectly unfamiliar, hardly a sound could
be heard. Wheel traffic there was none. The
hum of fog-gripped Paris came to them as if from
an incredible distance; there was not even a foot-
step to be heard.

Once more Deschamps shrugged his shoulders.
"Bien,'' he said; "yes, we have certainly 'done it
this time,' as you say. I have no notion where
we are. I am as cold as an iceberg and as hungry
as a goat."

i6 CHANCE IN CHAINS

They stood looking at each other, though the
face of each was an indistinct, pale glimmer.
They had gone a little too much to the west, and
had lost themselves in the narrow network of
mean streets somewhere behind the Ecole Mili-
taire. To reach the Latin Quarter would need
considerable ingenuity upon a clear evening when
the lamps shone brightly. At the moment it
seemed a sheer impossibility.

"Shall we turn back^" Deschamps asked.

Gregory shook his head. "No," he replied.
"You pretend to be so intimate with the habits
of Fortune, and yet you ask a question like that !
Let us go on. We are bound to find our way
somehow into some street where there is more life
and movement. And if we meet a gang of
Apaches — well, we are neither of us weaklings,
and we have got a couple of good walking-sticks.
Forward, Emile Deschamps ! We go to seek our
fortune !" And as he said it he laughed with bit-
ter cynicism.

They went on, but as they did so, and when they
had walked a hundred and fifty yards or more, the
street in which they were grew even narrower and

CHANCE IN CHAINS 17

more silent. Every now and then, at long dis-
tances, there was a gas lamp, but its yellow light
was so muffled by the fog that it hardly pene-
trated for more than a yard or so, and if the pris-
matic colours the light made upon the mist were
beautiful, they were quite useless to two young
gentlemen hungry for supper and far from
home.

Emile Deschamps took a box of matches from
his pocket, wax ones, which burned immediately
without the spectral blue flame of the more gen-
eral Government article. He lit one — there was
not a breath of wind — and held it above his head.
The two men walked onwards for a few yards
while the feeble light lasted, carefully scrutinising
the tall houses which abutted on the pavement.
They seemed to consist of small workshops and
factories, now blind and deserted. Another
match brought them to a stretch of wide wood pal-
ing, beyond which rose dim objects seeming like
giant mounds or pyramids, and even as the match
flickered out it threw its light upon a painted
sign.

"Ah!" Deschamps said suddenly. "Now I

i8 CHANCE IN CHAINS

know I We are in the wood quarter! This is a
street of chantiers de boisJ'

Basil groaned. "Good heavens!" he said,
"then we have come out of our way," for he knew
instantly that they had penetrated to that part of
Paris where the huge wood-sheds were, where the
firewood is cut and stored, and timber for all other
purposes is kept. All around them were the great
wood stacks and deserted yards. There was not
a sound to be heard, and doubtless the few watch-
men that were on guard were comfortably sleep-
ing over the stoves in their huts.

"Go on, or turn back*?" Deschamps said.

Gregory took a franc from his pocket, and spun
it under a gas lamp to which they had just come
up. "Heads we go on," he said, and as the coin
fell upon the back of his hand, sure enough the
figure of Liberty was uppermost.

"That settles it," he said, and once again the
boots of the friends rang upon the pavement.

They had travelled for some fifty yards or so,
when a rather brighter light than usual came into
their view.

"By Jove!" Gregory said, "an electric light at

CHANCE IN CHAINS 19

last! I know current is supplied to this neigh-
bourhood because there have recently been repre-
sentations in the Chamber of Deputies as to the
necessity for supplying current to all this part
owing to the inflammable nature of the wood.
The Societe is interested in the matter. I saw
some correspondence about it in the office, but the
people in this part are very conservative and none
too well off, either. Let us have a look."

They came up to the light. It was not a street
lamp, but projected from above the door of an old
and rather shabby building, and immediately be-
neath it was a trade sign which could easily be
read in the stronger illumination. This was the
sign:

CARNET FRERES,

Graveurs sur bois Boisage.

"Well, here's something," Gregory said, "and
by the fact that the light is still on, one may sup-
pose that there is someone inside. It is a wood-
engraver's and wood-turner's workshop, you see.
Yes, the door's actually open ! We will go in and
inquire where we are."

20 CHANCE IN CHAINS

As he spoke he pushed open a swing door of
wood, from which the paint was peeling, and, fol-
lowed by Deschamps, entered without further
ado.

CHAPTER II

The two young men were conscious of a pleasant
sensation of warmth as the door swung to behind
them.

They found themselves in a narrow passage, and
immediately to their left was a glass window like
the window of a conciergerie, one panel of which
was open and looked into a dingy office lit by a
single gas jet. There was nothing in the office but
a safe, a desk round the wall, and some high stools,
while a cheap French clock ticked from a bracket
upon the wall.

"At any rate, whoever they are, they have not

gone," said Deschamps with satisfaction. "Now

we shall be all right," and as he said it he rapped

loudly with his knuckles upon the little counter in

front of the glass partition. They waited for

nearly half a minute, but there was no response.

Finally Gregory took his walking stick and beat a

tattoo upon the counter. The sound of his knock-

ai

22 CHANCE IN CHAINS

ing had hardly died away when footsteps were
heard in the distance. They grew nearer, and a
door leading into the office behind the partition
was pushed open, and a strange and rather
startling figure entered.

This was a little man not more than four feet
high, wearing a round black cap of alpaca, a
green baize apron, and a huge circular pair of
spectacles. His face was brown and shrivelled.
A fine network of wrinkles was all over it, and be-
neath the alpaca cap were straggling locks of
dingy white. The nose which supported the pair
of grotesque horn spectacles was large and bird-
like, the mouth below was innocent and kindly.

The little man, in short, looked exactly like
the traditional toy or clock maker of Nuremberg
in a comic opera, stepping clean off the stage to
greet the new-comers.

He looked up at them with a courteous but in-
quiring glance as he turned up the gas jet
and they saw him more clearly. Then, placing
two soiled and wrinkled, but delicate and capable,
hands upon the counter, he made an odd bow.

"Messieurs*?" he said, in a thin, piping voice.

CHANCE IN CHAINS 23

Deschamps raised his hat. "I am sorry to say-
that my friend and I have lost our way," he be-
gan. "The fog is very thick to-night, and it is
growing thicker and thicker. We have come
quite out of our route, and do not know where
we are. We are trying to get to the Latin Quar-
ter, where we live."

The little man raised his hands, and as he did
so, both young men noticed how prehensile and
delicate they were — the hands of a master work-
man.

"Mon DieuJ" he said, "but you are very far
out of your way, indeed, gentlemen. This is the
Rue Petite Louise. It is not a thoroughfare at
all. It is only a cul-de-sac, which winds among
the wood-yards. Between here and the Latin
Quarter the district is very congested, and you
might walk about all night in a fog like this un-
less you could find a taxi-cab."

"I am afraid there won't be any cabs abroad
to-night in this part of Paris," Gregory broke in.
"Well, we must just take our chance. I thank
you very much, monsieur."

"But it is impossible!" the odd little creature

24 CHANCE IN CHAINS

said with a tiny shriek. "The hour is already
late, gentlemen; the fog, as you say, grows
thicker every moment. And, look you, on a night
like this there will be all sorts of robbers abroad.
It is most unsafe."

Deschamps shrugged his shoulders. "Doubt-
less," he said, "but there is nothing else for it."

The little man on the other side of the counter
peered at them anxiously through his great round
spectacles. "But, yes," he said, in a plaintive
bleat, "if affairs call you home, monsieur — doubt-
less madame will be distressed — then, indeed you
must go, but "

Deschamps laughed. "No, we have no busi-
ness; we have finished our work for the day, and
we are not married; still "

"The matter is settled," said the old gentle-
man, with a child-like smile. "You will do me
the honour of coming into our workshop im-
mediately. We have a fire there, soup, bread,
and vin ordinaire are ready, and there is enough
for all. My brother will be as pleased as I am
to have the honour of offering you hospitality on
such a night. No" — ^he waved his hands in reply

CHANCE IN CHAINS 25

to a murmur of protest from Deschamps — "we
could not let you go. Stay with us until the
morning, and we will do our best to make you
comfortable as may be."

Eager, chirping and twittering like an excited
bird, the odd, old fellow unlatched a half-door,
pushed up the counter-flap and bowed them into
the little office. In a moment they had passed
through it into a long, narrow room with a high
roof which seemed to be of glass.

The place was lit by a huge fire of coal and
wood, which glowed in an open hearth, and by
the side of it was a small forge. The red light
streamed out in a mysterious radiance upon a
workshop crowded with tools, long tables, stacks
of rare and polished woods, and here and there
an unfamiliar machine.

The only other light came from two candles
stuck upon a bench in their own grease, and the
whole effect was startlingly curious and unex-
pected. It was as picturesque as some carefully
set scene upon the stage, and seem.ed utterly re-
moved from the modern life of a great city. The
red light of the fire left distant comers of the

26 CHANCE IN CHAINS

workshop in black, impenetrable shadow, making
it seem of vast extent.

Around the fire, however, the half-circle of light
it threw out showed everything with great dis-
tinctness.

Gregory and Deschamps looked round them
with bewildered eyes, and then, simultaneously,
they gasped.

Rising from an old oak chair, emerging from
its depths rather, there came another little man
towards them.

In every particular he was exactly like their
guide. In that bizarre light, at any rate, hardly
anyone could have told them apart, and as he
stepped forward he peered at them through iden-
tical round spectacles.

"My brother, Edouard," said the old man who
had welcomed them. "Edouard, these gentlemen
have lost their way in the fog. They are very
far from their home, and it would be dangerous
for them to seek it to-night without a proper
guide. I have accordingly asked them to come in,
and begged of them to share our simple supper,
and to wait till the fog goes."

CHANCE IN CHAINS 27

"But I am enchanted I" said the second little
man, settling his round alpaca cap upon his head
and waving his right arm in an expressive pan-
tomime of welcome. "But this is most fortunate,
gentlemen. Supper is nearly ready; come to the
fire. Charles and myself are delighted to be of
service."

The sudden transition from bitter cold and the
grey blanket of the fog to this extraordinary place
bewildered both the engineers. It was almost as
if they moved among the scenes of some fantastic
dream, as they sat down upon a bench by the
fire, removed their damp hats and overcoats, and
locked around them.

Was this really modern Paris'? Who were
these two kindly, dwarf -like creatures who had
welcomed them into this warm, secret place,
which seemed like a cavern of the gnomes'?

Suddenly Basil Gregor}^ became conscious that
"my brother Charles" was standing before him
and speaking.

"We are the Carnet Freres," he was saying,
"and. twin brethren also I I noticed, monsieur,
you were startled as Edouard came to greet you.

28 CHANCE IN CHAINS

And, naturellement^ this old workshop of ours is
something out of the ordinary way. But we have
lived and worked here for twenty years, my
brother and I — we have a sleeping-room at the
back — and what we do for our living is a small
and specialised branch of the wood- worker's trade,
and we have the monopoly of it."

Basil bowed. "My comrade, Monsieur Emile
Deschamps," he said. "I, myself am an English-
man, and my name is Gregory."

The hands of Brother Charles flickered in front
of him. "But it is wonderful I" he said with the
pleased surprise of a child with a new toy. "You
are English to look at, monsieur. There is noth-
ing of the Latin about you: and yet you speak
French as well as I do."

"I have lived nearly all my life in Paris," Basil
answered with a smile.

"That accounts for it," the other twittered.
"And now I see Brother Edouard is preparing the
meal. Mon Dieu, Edouard, how hungry these
poor gentlemen must be I"

An iron pot was hooked over the fire — a steam-
ing pot, a pot of fragrant promise. From it into

CHANCE IN CHAINS 29

stout china bowls Brother Edouard was ladleing
thick brown soup.

Brother Charles wheeled round to the long
work-bench and began to cut thick slices of bread,
to rattle spoons, parade a somewhat dingy cruet,
set flat-footed glasses by each bowl, and uncork
two bottles of vin ordinaire.

Overflowing with hospitality and the most
charming child-like excitement, the odd, bird-like
hosts served the soup and poured out that cheap
table-wine of Paris, which is exactly the colour
of permanganate of potash and water.

Basil and Emile sat down without further ado,
and for five minutes there was a happy silence.
The pot-au-feu was rich and nourishing. The
wine was exactly that to which the friends them-
selves were accustomed. The fog and the cold
in the ridiculous, inhospitable outside world was
quite forgotten, and it seemed as if some malig-
nant fog-curtain in their own brains had now
rolled up and disappeared.

The faces of the two young men lost their
pinched and discontented look. Anxiety faded
from their eyes, and as they passed their cigarette

30 CHANCE IN CHAINS

cases to their hosts, and four thin blue spirals of
smoke rose out of the red light to be lost in
the shadows of the roof, Basil Gregory and Emile
Deschamps had lost all thought of care.

It seemed quite natural, perfectly in the order
of things, to be sitting there with their fantastic
and courteous entertainers in a strange, mediaeval
setting — two starving wayfarers upon a hillside,
taken in to the cave of the kindly gnomes, or the
workshop of beneficent magicians.

"Your cigarettes are of the best tobacco, mon-
sieur," said Charles Camet. ''Au hon fumeur!
My brother and I had expected to spend a lonely
evening. Here's to the fortunate chance that
brought us guests!"

He tossed off a thimbleful of the purple wine
with a flourish.

"But I could wish, gentlemen," said his brother,
"that we could have entertained you better, I
am afraid we are old-fashioned in our ways, and
prefer a simple menage. At any rate, there might
have been more light upon the scene. The fire
is all very well, but these two candles give hardly
any illumination. As a rule, our workshop is lit

CHANCE IN CHAINS 31

with electric light, and we also use the current for
our lathe. An hour ago, however, there was a
'fizz' and a 'spit' from that porcelain box there
in the casing of the electric wires, and, behold!
the light went and the lathe will not work. It
has happened before, and we must now wait till
to-morrow for the electrician to come from the
works and put it right for us."

Basil Gregory laughed. "Fate hath many sur-
prises, Monsieur Camet," he said, "and surely
we have been specially sent to your assistance to-
night! My friend and I are both electrical
engineers attached to the superintending station of
the Societe Generale at Mont Parnasse. I expect
I know what has happened. And I shall be very
m.uch mistaken if I cannot put it right for you in
two or three minutes."

The little gentlemen were on their feet
in a second, chirping and twittering with pleas-
ure.

"Tiens! Edouard," said Brother Charles, "we
have been entertaining angels unawares!"

"You are right, Charles," said Brother
Edouard. "Angels of light."

32 CHANCE IN CHAINS

Gregory and Deschamps went to the opposite
wall of the workshop, moving cautiously among
the benches, litter of wood-blocks and tools.
Deschamps held one of the candles while Gregory
deftly unscrewed the round porcelain cap of the
cut-out. It was as he suspected, and he pulled
out the semi-circular china bridge from its brass
clips and showed it to his hosts.

"It is quite simple," he said. "Between this
brass screw and this, there is always a soft wire
made of tin and lead — fusible metal, we call it.
All the current which lights your lamps and runs
your lathes passes through the insulated copper
wires, but it has to pass tlirough the little lead
wire as well. From some reason or other the
current gets too strong and might heat the wires
and create a fire; the little lead wire strung on
this half-circle melts with the heat, and the cur-
rent is shut off. That was the spitting noise you
heard."

He plunged his hand into a side pocket and
withdrew a small coil of fuse wire, which every
practical engineer carries, and a screwdriver. In
half a minute he had fixed three inches of the soft

CHANCE IN CHAINS 33

lead wire into the bridge, and snapped the bridge
into its place in the box.

There was a click as the blocks came home, and
then, in an instant, the long workshop was
flooded with white light, while at the far end of
it the motor, and the lathe it drove, began to
hum and clatter with a sudden, disconcerting
noise.

Edouard Carnet ran to the lathe and pulled
down the tumbler switch. The noise stopped,
but the brilliant illumination remained, and en-
tirely changed the aspect of the room.

The great fire glowed a dull red now. The
shadows shrivelled up into the corners and dis-
appeared. Every object in the workshop was
distinct and well-defined.

"A thousand thanks, monsieur," said the little
men. "Another glass of wine ! We will go back
to the fireside and drink in light and comfort."

The four of them found their way back to their
seats, and began to talk again. The eyes of the
newcomers, however, were straying round the
workshop with a curiosity they could hardly dis-
guise. The place had been mysterious before, and

34 CHANCE IN CHAINS

strangely picturesque in the half light. It was
mysterious no longer, but a picturesqueness lin-
gered still, while there was much that neither of
them were able to understand.

Suddenly Deschamps gave an exclamation.
His eye had fallen upon something which in-
terested and excited him, something which called
up golden visions.

''TiensP' he cried, jumping up from his seat,
and going over to the adjacent table. "And what
have we here?"

Upon the table was a circular basin — rather
larger than an ordinary washing basin — ^beauti-
fully made of polished black ebony, and with a
rim that curved over upon the inside. Upon the
inward curve of the basin, at regular distances,
were diamond-shaped bosses of bright metal,
while the whole of the bottom of the instrument
consisted of a series of tin compartments painted
black and red alternately, each compartment hav-
ing a number painted upon it in white. These
compartments were fixed to a moving disc, which
could be rapidly rotated by means of a silver up-
right terminating in a sort of capstan, and rising

CHANCE IN CHAINS 35

above the sides of the bowl in the exact centre.

Emile Deschamps knew very well what this
was. He was of the South. He had been bom
near that fairy city on the Mediterranean where
the Goddess of Chance rules supreme.

"Then you make roulette wheels'?" he cried,
turning excitedly to the two little men. "But
this one is superb ! It is larger than you can buy
in the shops. It is full size indeed — exactly as
they are used at Monte Carlo I"

With fingers that actually trembled, the young
man twirled the silver capstan, and immediately
the painted slots in the bowl became merged in a
trembling blur of colour, as the disc revolved
noiselessly, but at great speed.

"It is perfect I" Emile went on, with a chuckle
of excitement and delight. "It runs as sweetly
and truly as those in the Casino itself! Basil,
look here I See how delicate and beautiful this
work is I"

The brothers Carnet had risen to their feet also,
and were standing side by side. Their bird-like
faces were wreathed with gratified smiles. They
bowed together like a grotesque toy.

36 CHANCE IN CHAINS

"Messieurs," said Brother Edouard, "we thank
you for what you have said. The wheel is, in-
deed, as you say, a masterpiece! But it would
be odd if it were not so, for, for twenty years my
brother and myself have done nothing else than
make just these wheels. Every single piece of it
is our handiwork. We forge the nickel for the
pivot and capstan, and we silver-plate it ourselves.
We select the wood, we turn it — no other hands
but ours touch the wheels. Brother Charles here
even turns the ivory balls." He stepped up to
the table, pulled out a long drawer, and lifted
from it a walnut box lined with green baize, in
which were a dozen small balls of ivory, the size
of a large marble.

"See!" he cried; "these also!"

Basil had been examining the delicate and
beautifully made machine with great interest
while the Camets had been speaking. He also
had an eye for perfect workmanship, and it needed
not the excited enthusiasm of his friend for him
to realise that he saw it here.

At the same time, he could not quite under-
stand the sort of fever into which the sight of

CHANCE IN CHAINS 37

the roulette wheel had thrown Deschamps. It
seemed exaggerated to the Englishman. Here
was good workmanship, it was true. But why
this torrent of excited words ^

"For twenty years I" Deschamps cried.
"Then; indeed, monsieur, that explains it! But
surely it cannot pay you to devote your life to
this work, though it is certainly the finest I have
ever seen, and far superior to anything one can
buy in the shops I"

The two brothers chuckled; and then Charles
took up the tale.

"Our wheels are not for sale," he said. "I
must let you into a little secret, which, as our
guests and men of honour, you will preserve. My
brother and I make all the roulette wheels for
the Casino at Monte Carlo. We have been em-
ployed by the Administration for many, many
years. As you may well conceive, it is important
that these machines should be perfect in every
detail. Millions of francs depend upon it. We
are retained at a large figure to construct the
wheels. Every two years all the wheels at Monte
Carlo are changed. There are twelve roulette

38 CHANCE IN CHAINS

tables generally in use. Every two years we send
twelve wheels and the old ones are returned to us
to be broken up. We can just make twelve
within the two years. This one is the last of the
new batch which will be dispatched to the south
in three days in charge of two commissionaires
from Monaco, who will never leave them out of
their sight until they arrive at their destination."

Basil listened to this explanation with interest.
He had never been to Monte Carlo, though, in
common with the rest of the world, he had heard
many fabulous tales of the great gambling centre
of the world. He saw, however, that Emile's
imagination was profoundly stirred, and he lis-
tened, half dreamily, to the quick fire of eager
questions and courteous answers which passed be-
tween Deschamps and his hosts.

When this had a little died down, Emile turned
to him and noticed his half-abstracted, half-
amused expression.

"Ah, mon ami^' he said, "you wonder at me I
This leaves you cold. It means nothing to you.
To me, who have been, I myself, in those glitter-
ing halls of Chance, upon the edge of the Medi-

CHANCE IN CHAINS 39

terranean, this machine brings intoxicating visions.
It tells of men and women at the last gasp
of hope, ruined in fortune, friendless, and with
the whole face of the world set against them like
a wall of polished brass. It tells me of a man like
this entering through the great doors and issuing
forth again within a few short hours, rich be5^ond
his rosiest dreams, able to command all that life
has to offer, the divine sense of power flowing in
his veins, the cold brass wall gone and in its
place a garden of roses! Seel"

With a swift motion of his hands he picked up
one of the little ivory balls and twirled the cap-
stan in the disc. The painted slots began to re-
volve, more slowly than before.

Then, and obviously with a practised hand,
Emile Deschamps held the ball between the thumb
and two first fingers of his right hand, gave a
swift motion of his wrist, and the little ivory
cylinder whirled round the top of the basin un-
der the overhanging lip, with that curious dron-
ing sound that no one who has ever heard it can
quite forget.

Click I crack! crack! The speed of the ball

40 CHANCE IN CHAINS

lessening, it was now rattling upon the diamond-
shaped bosses on the side of the bowl, losing mo-
mentum with every moment, until it dropped
upon the revolving disc below — revolving in the
opposite direction to itself.

And now there was a succession of sharp taps,
as the little ball was tossed by the edges of the
slots hither and thither, furiously jumping from
one to the other, flung back for an instant upon
the sloping side of the basin, returning to its mad
career over the slots.

And then — a sudden final click as it fell to rest.
Silence !

Immediately Deschamps put his finger upon the
top of the capstan and stopped the revolutions of
the slots.

"Seven — red!" he cried. "Ah I if I had put
but nine little golden louis upon that number,
within a quarter of a minute I should have been
richer by six thousand three hundred francs, more
than twice what I earn in a whole year, Basil!
In twenty little seconds I Now, do you see what
this thing may mean*?"

Basil found himself strangely affected by his

CHANCE IN CHAINS 41

friend's enthusiasm. He knew nothing of
roulette. He had occasionally seen a small wheel
in a toy shop, but this so concrete illustration of
the game startled him more than he would have
been willing to admit.

The thin voice of Edouard Carnet broke in.
"Yes, monsieur," he said, "that is one vision, but
there are others. Who should tell of those un-
happy men who have followed the Goddess of
Chance even to the very gates of death, until they
have opened and closed upon them at last.
Somewhere in the kingdom of Monaco there is a
hidden graveyard; none know where it is. And
in that dishonoured plot lies hundreds of nameless
ones, who have yielded up their all — happiness,
honour, life — to the ebony basin."

Basil started. The words seemed to come
strangely from the actual artificer of the wheel of
fortune. Deschamps also looked curiously at the
little man, whose face had suddenly gone grey
and whose voice trembled. "But, monsieur," he
said, in a hesitating voice.

The other made a gesture with his hand.
"Yes, yes," he replied, "I well know what you

42 CHANCE IN CHAINS

would say — such words come strangely from me
or from my brother. But, monsieur" — he tapped
the rim of the bowl with a thin hand — "this is the
very last of these engines of hell that I or Charles
will ever make I"

He paused, struggling with some deep emotion.
"We had a nephew," he continued, "my brother
and I; the only relative left to us in the world.
We loved him as if he had been a son. We saved,
invested, and worked solely for him. We are
rich, monsieur I Not only have our earnings been
large, but we have saved, and invested our sav-
ings in safe rents. All, all was to have been his.
Aristide was young, clever, and, backed by the
fortune we could leave him, would have taken
a high place in the world. He had gone to Mar-
seilles on business for us, entrusted with a con-
siderable sum of money. Some friends took him
to Monte Carlo— it was only three months ago.
He lost this money of ours at the tables — lost it
by means of one of the very wheels we had made
— and in despair he killed himself, though God
knows how gladly we would have forgiven him.
We have now completed our last contract for the

CHANCE IN CHAINS 43

Administration. We have resigned our position,
and for the future others shall make the wheels.
We will touch them no more."

"Never again," Charles Carnet echoed his
brother, but he looked lovingly at the glittering
thing upon the table nevertheless. "No one will
make the wheels like us agam," he said with a sigh.

The four men, oddly assorted as they were,
gathered round the fire once more. There was
but little conversation now. They gazed into
the glowing heart of coals and wood-blocks, each
busily occupied with his own troubled thoughts.

Basil Gregory, warmed and comfortable as he
was in body, felt very low in spirits. One of
those moments had come to him when life seems
a spoilt and futile thing. The future stretched
before him in imagination like some great Essex
marshland at evening, when the colour fades out
of everything, the leaden tides creep inwards from
the sea, and the curlews pipe to each other with
melanchol)'' voices, like souls sick for love. There
was nothing, nothing I A dreary round of ill-
paid mechanical duties, a long engagement which
would probably never end in marriage, one of the

44 CHANCE IN CHAINS

most epoch-making inventions the world could
ever know, locked up in his mind and that of his
friend, Emile Deschamps.

Thus the thoughts of the poor Englishman,
Basil Gregory, as he gazed into the rose-pink and
amethyst heart of the hre.

The two old men were sadly remembering the
recent loss of the bright- faced boy that had meant
everything in their narrow, patient lives.

Sadness lay like a veil upon the faces of all
three.

But Emile Deschamps' face was not sad. It
was set and rigid. Not a feature of it moved.
The brow was wrinkled and knotted with
thoughts. There was a fixed and smouldering fire
in the eyes. Once Basil looked at his friend and
wondered what intense and concentrated thought
was burning and glowing in the great executive
brain of the Southerner. Had he known, had
an inkling of it reached him, he would have leapt
to his feet in the wildest excitement he had ever
known.

For, indeed, the fickle Goddess of Chance was
abroad this night, and had led their footsteps to

CHANCE IN CHAINS 45

this secluded workshop. Unseen, unfelt by any
save only Emile Deschamps, she was hovering in
the room where the wheels of her votaries were
made.

About dawn a low wind arose and wailed
around the quarter of the wood-turners. The
deep mist vanished as grey light began to filter in
through the glass roof of the workshop. With
many thanks the two young men bade their hosts
farewell, and went out into the chill morning air.

A pressing invitation to come again whenever
they liked, piped in unison by Brother Charles
and Brother Edouard, was the last sound they
heard as their feet echoed up the deserted street
towards the great main thoroughfares of Paris.

CHAPTER III

The next day was cold, but bright and sunny.
From ten o'clock in the morning until dejeuner at
twelve o'clock, Ethel McMahon endeavoured to
instil some rudimentary knowledge of English
into the minds of the fifteen-year-old daughters
of prosperous tradesmen of the Luxembourg
district at the academy for young ladies of the
Demoiselles de Custine-Seraphin, two elderly
ladies in whom parsimony and the proprieties
struggled for mastery.

With many a sigh and shrug of disgust her
demure charges had struggled with the intricacies
of our language, had conjugated the verb "to
love" in unexpected fashions, had laboriously as-
similated the information that "ze weadder is
going to be vef fin to-day," and so forth.

At twelve, together with her fellow-teachers,

Mademoiselle Marie and Mademoiselle Augustine

de Custine-Seraphin, Ethel had taken the second

46

CHANCE IN CHAINS 47

breakfast of thin soup, pallid mutton, and stale
tartines au confiture. At one she was free — free
till nine o'clock in the evening. And as she came
downstairs from her room dressed to go out, her
face was so radiant and changed in expression that
Mademoiselle Marie de Custine-Seraphin tossed
her head as the girl passed, and gave it as her
undoubted opinion to her sister that la jeune
anglaise was certainly going to do more than
spend a quiet afternoon and evening with her in-
valid mother.

"Figure to yourself, Augustine; her face was
of the most beaming, her eye had sparkle, her
cheeks were colour of rose. Ca fait un amant^
n'est-ce pas?'"

''A la jeunesse, coiyime a la jeunesse^'" her sis-
ter replied with a shrug, and went on making up
the account of Mademoiselle Hortense Dubois,
the well-to-do butcher's daughter who was leaving
school that quarter.

Ethel McMahon hurried out of the quiet street
in which the school was situated, walking towards
the Luxembourg.

She was a typically Irish girl in feature, with

48 CHANCE IN CHAINS

those dark-blue eyes, like hot Venetian water, that
hair black as a bog-oak root, that complexion of
cream and roses that is hardly seen anywhere out-
side the Isle of Unrest. She was tall and walked
with a swing, as she threaded her way among the
chic and mincing Parisiennes towards her
mother's tiny flat in the Rue Paczensky.

Dull as the girl's life waS, hard as she worked
all day, her youth and vitality were stronger than
the power of circumstances. Vivid and impul-
sive in all she did, a constant spring of hope welled
up within her, and she was certain that sooner
or later — she believed very soon — everything in
her life would come right. Dear Basil would get
some lucrative appointment, the great invention
would be financed by some kindly millionaire who
would appear in the nick of time. They would
get married, her mother would be able to live in
the far healthier air of the Alps, as the doctor had
ordered. Day in and day out Ethel was con-
vinced that all would be well, and whenever she
saw her lover she comforted and inspirited him
as if they were indeed husband and wife.

Mrs. McMahon's flat of two rooms and a

CHANCE IN CHAINS 49

kitchen was high up in the great drab block of
buildings, and, small as it was, the rent, as is the
case with all flats in Paris, was proportionately
high.

As she entered the hallway Ethel was handed
a bundle of letters by the concierge. She did not
examine them at the moment, but ran lightly up
the stairs to the flat.

Mrs. McMahon was seated by the window of
the sitting-room. A lace pillow with its pins
and reels of thread was upon the table before her,
and her thin hands were moving quickly and
deftly over it hither and thither.

It was Mrs. McMahon' s specialty to copy old
Valenciennes lace, which she did for a firm in the
Rue de Rivoli. The labour was intense, the
process wearingly long, but the few hundred
francs earned during the year by this means
helped to pay the rent.

She was a tall, faded woman. The hair, which
had once been as black as her daughter's, was now
scanty and iron-grey. All the light had faded
from the blue eyes, and she was painfully thin.
She returned her daughter's caresses without much

so CHANCE IN CHAINS

animation, and sat back in her old-fashioned chair
with her hands lying idly in her lap, gazing at the
girl in a lack-lustre way as she moved quickly
about the room, taking off her hat and stole of
cheap fur, giving a touch to the furniture here
and there, and putting a little bunch of dark-red
asters, which she had bought, into a vase upon
the dining-table.

"Well, Ethel, I suppose you have no news'? I
hope those old cats" — Mrs. McMahon was accus-
tomed to refer to the Demoiselles de Custine-
Seraphin in this way — "I hope those old cats have
been behaving themselves better. I cannot think
why you stay with them. Surely a girl with your
knowledge of French as well as English, and with
your appearance, could get something better to
do. The salary they pay you is disgraceful."

Ethel shook her head brightly; this was an old
ground of debate between herself and the queru-
lous invalid. "My dear mother," she said, "I
really cannot afford to wait for anything better
to turn up. If I could, possibly I might get
something better to do, but that would mean com-
ing home for perhaps three or four months, and

CHANCE IN CHAINS 51

you know we cannot possibly afford that. While
I am at the school, of course, I cannot go looking
after another post. So I must make the best of
it, that's all."

Mrs. McMahon coughed fretfully. "How
horrified your poor dear father would have been,"
she said, "at the life you are leading now I It
is my one consolation that Providence has spared
him that I"

Ethel said nothing in answer, though she had
her doubts upon the subject. The late Captain
McMahon had retired from the Irish Guards soon
after getting his company and marrying pretty
Miss Persse of county Galway. There were not
wanting those who said that his retirement was
m.ore or less compulsory owing to rather too pro-
nounced successes while holding the bank at bac-
carat or chemin de fer. Be that as it may,
Ethel's memory of her childhood in various more
or less shady Continental resorts was by no means
a pleasant one. Captain McMahon had been
one of those people whose whole philosophy is
summed up in the expression, "Hang it, the luck
must turn!" He had wooed fortune wherever a

52 CHANCE IN CHAINS

casino or gambling hell was to be found upon the
Continent of Europe; he had wooed her in vain;
the luck never did turn.

However, it was doubtless owing to this per-
sistent optimism inculcated by her father that
Ethel herself was enabled to bear up against the
drab monotony of her life. She also felt instinc-
tively that "the luck must turn." As for Mrs.
McMahon herself, while she affected a consist-
ent despair and the gloomiest outlook upon the
future, she secretly nourished the most ex-
travagant hopes, and was as much a gambler in
temperament as her husband had been in action.
Only the most limited opportunities of exercising
her passion were given her, but of these she took
advantage to the full.

"I cannot think," the elder lady went on,
"what that lover of yours can be about. Oh, I
have nothing to say against Basil," she said hur-
riedly, as she saw Ethel's colour begin to rise, and
her mouth to harden into mutiny. "Basil is a
good fellow enough, and, of course, I know he is
very clever at his electricity, and so on. He and
that young Frenchman, Monsieur Deschamps,

CHANCE IN CHAINS 53

have no doubt got a fortune in their heads, as you
are always telling me. All that I can say is that
it seems likely to stay there. With your blood
Ethel, for both the Persses and the McMahons
rode straight for anything they wanted, I wonder
at your choosing a boy like Basil, who seems to
have no initiative, no dash. Ah, well ! I suppose
there are no soldiers of fortune nowadays. But,
still, with your name and your appearance, I think
you might have done better for yourself."

Ethel knew it was useless to answer anything to
this. She let her mother run on until she was
tired, and then began to make tea, with a little
spirit kettle.

As she was doing this, she noticed the little
pile of letters that the concierge had handed to
her. The top one had not come by post, and was
unstamped. Ethel knew the writing very well.
It was that of the clerk who sent out demands
and receipts for the rent at the office.

"Ah!" she said; "here is the receipt for the
quarter's rent." She had given her mother the
money to pay it some time ago, and without think-
ing what she was doing, she opened the envelope.

54 CHANCE IN CHAINS

Mrs. McMahon rose from her seat in consider-
able agitation. Her hands trembled a little, and
a bright colour came into her wan face.

''Why, mother," Ethel said in alarm, "this is
not a receipt at all! This is a letter from the
office saying that the rent is much overdue, and
pressing for immediate payment. I gave you the
money I" The words died away from her lips as
she saw the old lady, a picture of embarrassment,
standing before her.

"My dear," said Mrs. McMahon, in a shaking
voice, "you really must allow me to manage the
household finances in my own way. I am older
and more experienced in life than you. I have
temporarily — er — well, invested the rent money
in the hopes, in the almost certainty, that in a day
or so I shall be repaid a hundred-fold."

Ethel sat down at the table with a deep sigh.
"Oh, mother I" she said in a pleading voice, "how
could you, how could you really *? I suppose
that it is one of those wretched lotteries again.
I should not like to think how many precious
francs have been simply thrown away in the last
year or two. Hundreds and hundreds. It is

CHANCE IN CHAINS SS

simply madness to spend two or three hundred
francs on a ticket for one of the wretched things
when we have hardly money for the necessaries of
life."

The old lady began to cry weakly. "I did it
for the best, Ethel," she said. "I am sure I
thought that my bad luck could not go on much
longer. I had such hopes this time."

Ethel saw her opportunity. While her mother
was in this state of penitence she might perhaps
make a lasting impression.

"Mother," she said, earnestly, "gambling nearly
ruined my grandfather; it quite ruined father.
We could not be much worse off than we are, but
don't throw away the last thing that keeps us
from absolute starvation. Do not destroy the
roof over our heads I If there were only some-
thing in It, I should not so much mind. To win
anything in these affairs robs nobody. But
there never Is anything in it, worse luck. From
us, at any rate, the spirit of Chance has turned
her head ; gambling of any sort is ruin."

"It is — it is," the old lady sobbed, now thor-
oughly broken down. "Oh, that I had never

56 CHANCE IN CHAINS

been drawn into it, had never had the poison in-
stilled into my blood I But this is the last time,
Ethel, dear; it is the last time, I promise you.
And how to pay the rent I do not know."

Ethel sighed heavily. The rent could be paid
this time, she knew. She had been fortunate in
securing some extra English lessons during the
last quarter — lessons which were given privately
to a girl of about her own age, and which had
brought her in a few louis; but she had wanted
this money so badly for clothes. It was dread-
ful to go out with Basil on their rather rare holi-
days and to look dowdy and shabby, as she was
only too conscious of being. She knew — what
pretty girl does not? — how important decent
clothes are, and she longed that her lover should
see her dressed like other maidens in the restau-
rants and minor places of amusement where he
was able to take her. And now — that was an-
other little dream gone. The old brown coat and
skirt and the imitation astrachan muff and stole
would have to do for the rest of the winter ; there
was bitterness in the thought which no man can
fathom.

CHANCE IN CHAINS 57

"Oh, well," she said in a dull voice, "I have
saved up a little, and I suppose it will be enough
for the rent. But, oh, mother, how could you do
it!"

"Never again! never again!" wailed the old
lady, and with a dull pain at her heart Ethel left
the room and went into the little kitchen to fetch
the tea things.

She was a little longer in the kitchen than she
had anticipated. Tears were in her eyes also, and
it required all her resolution and self-control to
keep them back, and to preserve her ordinary com-
posure. At last, with a heavy sigh and trying to
twist her face into the semblance of a smile, she
took up the tray and went back into the sitting-
room, resolved to comfort her mother as well as
she could.

Mrs. McMahon, to her daughter's immense sur-
prise, was standing by the window, verj^ erect,
with all traces of recent tears and penitence ab-
solutely gone from her face. There was a su-
perior and almost haughty smile upon the old
lady's lips.

58 CHANCE IN CHAINS

Ethel stared in wild astonishment at this trans-
formation.

"Put the things down, my dear," said Mrs.
McMahon, in a calm and patronising voice.
"Perhaps when you have heard what I have got to
say, you will realise the wisdom of trusting to
older and more experienced people. I do not
blame you, Ethel; you are but a child after all
and can know nothing of the world. But I do
ask you to trust to the wisdom and judgment of
your elders in future. If you do so, and allow
yourself to be guided by me in everything, then
we shall very soon be relieved from our present
position, and be able to return to that place in so-
ciety which our birth and connections warrant."

Ethel dropped the tray some inches upon the
table with a crash. Her lower lip dropped.
Her eyes were wide.

Mrs. MacMahon looked down upon her daugh-
ter— she was slightly taller than Ethel when she
stood erect — with a kindly and compassionate
smile, as one looks at a beloved but tiresome and
fretful child.

"I suppose," she said, "that a little sum of two

CHANCE IN CHAINS 59

thousand five hundred francs would be sufficient
to pay the rent?"

Ethel gasped.

"I suppose," Mrs. McMahon continued, "that
you would regard a return of a hundred pounds
for an investment of ten fairly remunerative?"

Ethel murmured something or other, she hardly
knew what.

Then Mrs. McMahon condescended to explain.
Her eagerness burst through, her high comedy
manner vanished.

"Oh, my dear, my dear I" she cried, "the luck
has turned at last ! After all these years I Look !
look I"

With shaking hands she held out some papers
to Ethel. A typewritten sheet was headed,
"Koniglich - Preussiche - Klassen - Lotterie," and
stated in French that Mrs. McMahon, who had
purchased the eighth of a ticket in the famous
Berlin lotterj^ had thereby won a sum of 2,000
Marks German, or — was added in parentheses —
2,500 francs. A pink draft upon the Credit
Lyonnais was enclosed for the sum.

"Oh, mother I" Ethel gasped, in the sudden

6o CHANCE IN CHAINS

shock, "two thousand five hundred francs! A
hundred pounds!" And, quite forgetful of her
former strictures, she hugged the trembling old
lady again and again. "We are rich! we are
rich!" she cried, and a vision crossed her mind
of an inexpensive hat she had but lately seen in
the Rue de Rivoli — a perfect duck of a hat!

They sat down to tea, and never was there a
happier meal. Ethel was to meet Basil at six,
and he was to take her out to dinner.

"Oh, mother," she said, "how delighted Basil
will be to hear the news ! I am so sorry I spoke
as I did, but it all seemed so hopeless. I see now
that I was wrong."

Mrs. McMahon smiled. "My dear," she said,
"remember that it is a rule in life that nothing
venture, nothing have. This money seems a great
deal, no doubt, and it certainly more than repays
all that I have spent to get it, so that we are on
the right side, after all, as your poor dear father
used to say. But it is a principle in these affairs
. — and you will admit now that I know something
about them — always to follow up your luck. It
is the people who do not do that who never de-

CHANCE IN CHAINS 61

serve to have any, and very rarely do have any."

Ethel did not quite understand what the elder
lady meant, but she nodded. "Go on, mother
dear," she answered.

Mrs. McMahon, who for the last two or three
minutes had been sitting lost in thought, turned
to her daughter. Her face was grave, but it
showed a strangely suppressed excitement, and
there was an odd glimmer in her eyes. "First of
all, dear," she said, "we must pay the rent. Your
little savings will not be required, after all. You
can renovate your wardrobe, and I will add some-
thing to help you. More especially, you will
have to get a really good evening gown, and a
smart hat to wear with it."

Ethel stared. "But, mother," she said, "surely
that is an extravagance'? I never go anywhere
where a smart evening gown is wanted. And you
know what such things cost."

"A smart evening gown," Mrs. McMahon went
on, almost as if she were talking to herself. "We
must spend as little as possible upon it, but it
must be decent. For myself, I have something
that will do — that is, in the first instance."

62 CHANCE IN CHAINS

"What are you talking about, mother dcar^"
Ethel asked.

"Now listen, Ethel," her mother replied. "A
chance has come to us. It may well be our one
and only chance. We must grasp it, or let it go
by for ever. Fortune always turns her face away
from those who refuse to follow when she beckons.
I have a plan. We must take Fortune at the
flood, as I said. To begin with, we must tell
Basil Gregory nothing whatever of this little bit
of good fortune which has befallen us. You
must not say a word to him about it, or even hint
at it."

"Oh, but mother, he would be so delighted to
know. I always share everything with Basil."

"No doubt," said Mrs. McMahon, "but in this
case I want you to do nothing of the sort. You
will know why in a moment. Basil, dear fellow
as he is — I am sorry I made some petulant re-
m.arks about your engagement a few minutes ago
— is an Englishman. Apart from his high scien-
tific attainments, which have yet to be proved,
by the way, Basil has all the Englishman's solid-
ity and caution. He is not imaginative. He is

CHANCE IN CHAINS 63

not a man to risk anything upon a supreme chance.
Now, regard the situation in which we are."

"We are free from all debt, at any rate," Ethel
answered wonderingly; "and we shall have a nice
little surplus in hand."

"You must look farther than that, my dear,"
said her mother, with the odd brightness in her
eyes growing more marked than ever. "A hun-
dred pounds is all very well. We may buy shares
in other lottery tickets. We may even buy a
whole ticket, but that is a single chance, and means
a great deal of waiting. Since Fortune is
smiling upon us there is another and surer way
to court her favours. I have been thinking
quickly, as I generally do when there is something
important to be decided. With this money" —
she began to speak slowly and impressively — "you
and I can go to Monte Carlo. We can go by the
slow train, third class. It will take us twenty-
four hours, and not be very comfortable. But
that I can endure, and if I can, then so can you.
I know the Principality of Monaco very well. At
Monte Carlo itself all the hotels and places are
terribly expensive, and far beyond our means,

64 CHANCE IN CHAINS

but only a quarter of a mile away, in that part
known as the Condamine, there are lots of quite
inexpensive pensions which would serve our pur-
pose very well."

"But what on earth are we to do in Monte
Carlo ■? and how can I leave the school?"

"The school, my dear Ethel, is of minor im-
portance. Nothing venture, nothing have.
What we are to do at Monte Carlo is to turn
what will remain of our hundred pounds into such
a sum as will make us independent for the rest of
our lives — a sum that will allow me to go to
Switzerland, as the doctor ordered, that will start
you comfortably in your married life with Basil
Gregory."

The last shot told, and set the girl's pulses
throbbing furiously.

"Oh, mother," she said, "if it were only pos-
sible!"

"It is perfectly possible, my dear Ethel," Mrs.
McMahon returned, and there was such calm cer-
tainty in her tone that the eager girl, carried off
her feet by the arrival of the lottery cheque, and
the brilliant vista which was beginning to unveil

CHANCE IN CHAINS 65

itself, hardly questioned her mother's wisdom at
all.

"I know Monte Carlo very well," said the old
lady. "I was there often enough with your poor
dear father. On one occasion he lost every penny
he had at the tables there, and we were compelled
to apply to the Administration for what they call
the viatique — that is, a sufficient sum to pay our
expenses back to Paris, from whence we had come.
It is never refused. But, on looking back, I see
how foolish both your father and I were. We
played recklessly. We ignored the most ele-
mentary rules of chance. We were rightly pun-
ished. For many months now I have been
dreaming of just such a chance as has come to us
at last. I have been studying the new book
written by a professor, who won large sums of
money at Monte Carlo, in the interests of mathe-
matics, on the Theory of Probabilities. I have
gained much knowledge from it. I propose to
utilise that knowledge very shortly."

"Then you have definite plans?" Ethel asked.

"Perfectly definite, my dear. I have only been
waiting to put them into execution. The time has

66 CHANCE IN CHAINS

now arrived. We will get the necessary clothes —
for in order to obtain the entree to the Casino,
one must be decently dressed — and we will go to
Monte Carlo at once. Three days' careful play
at roulette — for I do not intend to go near the
trente-et-quarante tables — will either see us with a
sufficient fortune for our needs or take all we have
got. Even if it does, we shall be little worse off
than we are at present. Nothing can take my
hundred a year from me, and you will easily find
another post. It may even be that you can ob-
tain a week's leave of absence from those old cats.
It is worth while trying, at any rate. If not,
you must resign the whole thing. For my part,
I feel fully confident that you will never have to
go back to such dreary drudgery."

Confidence expressed in an authoritative tone by
an elder is infectious. Confidence already backed
up by an initial proof is more infectious still.
Ethel McMahon's scruples, doubts and hesitations
vanished utterly, and she threw herself whole-
heartedly into her mother's scheme.

CHAPTER IV

At six o'clock Basil came for Ethel. Mrs. Mc-
Mahon greeted him rather more kindly than usual,
and he noticed it with some surprise, for he was
always conscious that the old lady did not care
much for him. A humble-minded man, and bit-
terly conscious of his unsuccessful life, he was
certain that such a radiant being as Ethel was a
thousand times too good for him, and was even
inclined to acquiesce in the old lady's estimate in
a way that provoked his fiancee enormously.

He noticed also that in addition to the access
of kindliness, there was a distinct patronage in
Mrs. McMahon's manner. Her usual despond-
ency seemed to have disappeared. She spoke
largely and vaguely of "the future." He could
not understand it at all.

"What on earth has happened to your mother^"
he asked Ethel, as they descended the stone stairs

e)7

68 CHANCE IN CHAINS

towards the street. "I never saw her so chirpy,
darling."

Ethel hesitated for a moment. She was bright
and animated herself, and she pressed his arai
affectionately before replying. She was so ac-
customed to share her every hope and thought with
her lover that she found it difficult to frame a
suitable reply. "Oh, well, you know, mother has
ups and downs like the rest of us," she said at
length. "To-day she is in particularly good
spirits."

Basil sighed. "I wish I had the recipe," he
said; "try to get it from her. It would be par-
ticularly useful just now."

"Are you depressed, dear?" the girl asked.

"Horribly; things seem worse than ever. Oh,
Ethel, darling, it is dreadful to say so, but I do
not think we shall ever be married !"

"You are not to talk like that, Basil ; it is per-
fectly ridiculous, and I won't have it. Look at
me. Am I depressed?"

"No," the man answered, looking wonderingly
at her. "You have caught your mother's mood.
But the last time we were out together, if you

CHANCE IN CHAINS 69

remember, you were as sad as I. We walked
about the Luxembourg Gardens for an hour be-
wailing our lot."

"Yes, and after dinner we were as happy as
possible, and made all sorts of plans. We fur-
nished the drawing-room that evening, I think —
or was it the dining-room?"

Basil laughed, but there was no mirth in his
laughter. "It doesn't matter much," he replied,
"but to-night I do not think I could take any
interest in the attics of our Castle in Spain. For
that's what it is, dearest, at present, and that's
what I am sure it will remain."

"I have told you before, Basil, that you are
not to talk like that. I simply won't have it.
Entend'tu? Has anything happened to make
you feel more despondent than usual'?"

"Well, not exactly, and yet in a way there has,
though it is only a little thing."

"Tell me, dear."

"Oh, only that Deschamps has suddenly grown
quite extraordinary in his manner. You know
what absolute friends we were?"

"I know," she nodded. "Have I not been

70 CHANCE IN CHAINS

horribly jealous of you two at times, sitting
correcting exercises in that dreadful school in
the evening, and thinking of you two men
talking away together without anyone to inter-
rupt?'

Man-like, Basil Gregory did not quite appreci-
ate the underlying feeling in this remark.

"It has simply kept me alive," he went on,
"and kept hope burning within me to be with
Emile Deschamps. You see, our invention is
just as much his as mine. We have worked it
out together as if with one mind. Our interests
are absolutely identical."

"But I don't exactly understand what has hap-
pened, Basil."

"His manner has absolutely changed ever since
last night, when we had quite an adventure, he
and I."

"An adventure?" she asked quickly. "And
what was that?"

In reply Basil told her the whole history of the
fantastic night. He told it well, warming to the
work as he did so, and she saw the picture un-
fold itself — the queer, bird-like little men, the

CHANCE IN CHAINS 71

huge workshop with its strange implements, the
welcome hospitality.

"And then," he concluded, "it turned out that
they were hereditary makers of the roulette wheels
for the gambling at Monte Carlo. They have
made them for ever so many years, and they were
just employed upon the last wheel of all on that
very night. They are going to resign their posi-
tion. They have made sufficient money upon
which to live, and a young nephew of theirs, who
gambled at Monte Carlo with money that was
not his own, and afterwards committed suicide, has
disgusted them, very naturally, with the whole
thing."

Ethel's reply amazed him.

They were approaching the Rue Crois de Petits
Champs, and she stopped upon the pavement and
positively clutched his arm.

"And will the wheel you saw actually be used
at Monte Carlo?" she asked in a voice that had
suddenly become almost breathless.

He nodded, too surprised to speak.

"And you touched it?"

"Oh, yes; I twirled the beastly thing round, if

72 CHANCE IN CHAINS

that's what you mean. But why all this inter-
est?"

Again for a moment she answered nothing,
though her face had grown suddenly pale from
excitement.

"I cannot tell you," she said at length, "though
it may seem strange to you. It is a sudden
thought, that is all. And, oh, Basil, dear, I some-
how believe that it is a good omen, that it means
fortune for both of us. Oh, I'm certain of it."

"What a queer little darling you are !" he said,
with a laugh at her earnest manner. "But we
must not block up the pavement like this. Come
along."

They went onwards to their destination, a
quaint little restaurant known as the "Restaurant
de 1 Universe et Portugal," which they had dis-
covered some weeks before, and where one could'
get a really excellent dinner for two francs fifty
a head.

For the remaining three minutes of their walk
neither of them said anything. Every pulse in
Ethel's body was leaping with excitement.

The coincidence was too strange. She was not

CHANCE IN CHAINS 73

more superstitious than most people, though like
most people she had an undefined though real
belief in premonitions and omens. And in this
case the wish was indeed father to the thought.
She had been so carried away by the minor suc-
cess of the ticket in the first instance, and by her
mother's plan in the second, that Basil's story
seemed almost a direct and miraculous confirma-
tion of her hopes. When they were seated at
their accustomed table in the comer of the quiet
little restaurant, and a delicious pot au feu was
before them, she began to ply her lover with
eager questions, making him recount every detail
of the previous evening. He told her all that
she wished to know, but suddenly she noticed
that his face was still sad, and his eyes dreamy and
introspective.

She remembered with a pang of accusation what
he had been saying about Emile Deschamps.

"Oh, Basil," she said with pretty penitence,
"here am I bothering you about last night, and
you have not even told me what you were going
to about Monsieur Deschamps. You said some-
thing had depressed you — some change in him*?"

74 CHANCE IN CHAINS

"Well, it has," the young man replied. "When
we got home in the early morning to our hotel we
neither of us wanted to go to bed, so we lit the
stove and sat up in my room. I could not get
Emile to say a word. He absolutely refused to
discuss the events in the Rue Petite Louise. He
scowled at me when I tried to draw him into
conversation, as if I were trying to do him some
injury. I have never known him like that. Af-
ter about an hour I lay down on the bed and went
to sleep, till they brought our morning coffee.

"About ten we walked to the works together.
We have been there all day till just before I came
to fetch you. Upon the way Emile was just as
moody and brusque as ever. As he did not want
to talk about those two kindly little men, I thought
I would try another tack, and I began to discuss a
detail of our invention. It is an improvement
upon what we have already done, and at ordinary
times such a thing would never fail to interest
him."

"And didn't he rise to that?" Ethel asked.

"Never a bit. And that disturbed mc more
than ever, for it is so unlike him. All day he has

CHANCE IN CHAINS 75

been the same. We usually go to dejeuner to-
gether at a little cafe close to the works. This
morning he positively refused to come with me,
and, when I asked why, he insulted me. He was
like a bear with a sore head."

"And you went alone'?"

"Yes, and I have been alone ever since, and
have been brooding over the position and got my-
self into a thoroughly depressed state of mind."

"Well, never mind, dear," Ethel replied, "get
out of it now. How good this omelette is ! And
the wine, too ; really, I think the vin ordinaire here
is better than anywhere else in Paris. Cheer up,
old boy, because I am perfectly certain that ever}^-
thing is going to come right, and more quickly than
you have any idea of."

She spoke the last words with meaning, and
Basil looked at her, trying to read her face.

"Have you got something at the back of your
mind, sweetheart^" he asked.

She nodded. She could not help it.

"There is something," she said — "a little some-
thing. I cannot tell you now, because it is not my
secret, but wait and see. You will know more

76 CHANCE IN CHAINS

before long. For my part, I feel more happy and
hopeful than I have been since our engagement."
For a moment he caught something of her
gaiety. He lifted his glass, and drank. "To the
future," he said, but the momentary animation
flickered out, and it was a silent and sorrowful
young man who kissed her farewell about half-
past nine, at the comer of the street in which was
the establishment for young ladies of the De-
moiselles de Custine-Seraphin.

CHAPTER V

Gregory arrived at his hotel in the Latin Quarter
about ten. Loneliness oppressed him, and he
went to the couple of attics upon the top floor
tenanted by himself and Deschamps. He hoped
that the latter was in, and in a better mood. He
wanted an explanation from him, and he was
haunted by some half -formed fear that the
Frenchman knew of some calamity that might be
about to overtake them — that something had gone
wrong, perhaps, with the great invention, or that
their positions at the Societe Generale Electrique
were jeopardised.

There was no one in Deschamps' room as he
switched on the electric light, so he crossed the
landing and entered his own.

This room also was untenanted, but the light
was full on. He started, for it could not have
been turned on by him, and electric lights burning
at unnecessary hours were viewed with great dis-

17

78 CHANCE IN CHAINS

favour and the subsequent result in the monthly
bill by the hotel proprietor. Almost immediately,
however, he understood, for a note in Deschamps'
handwriting, and addressed to him, lay upon the
table.

He picked it up, and tore open the flimsy enve-
lope, his hand trembling as he did so.

For some reason or other he felt strangely ex-
cited, and he experienced the feeling that some-
thing is about to happen which comes to everj^one
at certain times. The note was quite short. It
stated that Deschamps had gone again to the Rue
Petite Louise to visit the Camet brothers, and told
Basil, in terms that were imperative, to proceed
there immediately upon his return. That there
might be no doubt whatever of Deschamps' mean-
ing, the letter concluded by saying, "The matter
is most urgent. I can say no more, but come."

As Basil walked the considerable distance
towards the woods quarter, he was ill at ease and
also in a bad temper. It was impossible to dis-
regard such a summons, but he saw no use nor
meaning in it, while it seemed to him almost an
impoliteness to trouble the kindly entertainers of

CHANCE IN CHAINS 79

the night before so soon again. He found his way
to the long, narrow street of the wood-sheds and
wood-workers without much difficulty, only once
having to ask the way. As before, the street was
ill-lit, and perfectly quiet, though this time he
could see it much more plainly owing to the ab-
sence of fog and the light of a watery moon. He
entered the little passage, and rapped on the
counter. Almost immediately that he had done
so the door behind flew open and Brother Charles
came out.

The little man was apparently delighted to see
him. He was cordiality itself.

"Monsieur Deschamps is within," he said.
"Enter, monsieur. We have been expecting you."

Greatly wondering what this might mean, Basil
Gregory passed through into the workshop, where
he found Edouard Camet and Deschamps sitting
by the fire.

On this occasion one of the principal work-
benches had been cleared of lumber, and a white
cloth was spread upon it, with a salad and boned
chickens from some neighbouring restaurant,
flanked by several bottles of that execrable sweet

8o CHANCE IN CHAINS

champagne beloved by the unsophisticated Paris-
ian at times of festival — the Parisian being at
once the most accomplished gourmet, and the
worst judge in Europe of sparkling wines.

Deschamps, who rose with his hosts as Basil en-
tered, was no longer surly or depressed. On the
contrary, Gregory saw at once that he was in a
state of intense excitement. There was a high
colour upon his swarthy face, and the big black
eyes were glittering.

In fact, there was an unusual atmosphere of
excitement about everyone present in the work-
shop, and insensibly, in the first few moments
even, it began to communicate itself to the Eng-
lishman.

"We were waiting for you to begin supper,"
said Brother Edouard in his twittering voice.
"Afterwards we will tell you — what we have to
tell."

Basil was not hungry, but he sat down with the
others. Both Deschamps and the Carnets ate
quickly and said very little. It was as though
they wished to be done with the meal, but when
the first bottle of champagne was opened and the

CHANCE IN CHAINS 81

sweet wine creamed in the glasses Brother Charles
rose and lifted his glass on high. "To the suc-
cess of the greatest scheme that human genius ever
evolved I" he piped. "To the ruin and overthrow
of that vast and evil power whose slaves and vic-
tims we have been !" With a sudden gesture, he
drained his glass and flung it on the floor, where
it crashed into a hundred pieces.

Then he stood there trembling, his bird-like
face twisted into a grotesque mask of hatred,
which was reflected by his brother.

Gregory looked at one and the other with
amazement and then turned to Deschamps. He
saw that the latter's face was more deeply flushed
than before, the whole expression was one of
quivering eagerness and almost ferocious hope.
Gregory leant back in his chair and very deliber-
ately lit a cigarette.

"I do not want to be unduly inquisitive," he
said, in a quiet and measured voice, "but if one of
you gentlemen would kindly give me the slightest
inkling of what you are talking about, and why
you are all so excited, then perhaps I shall feel a
little less bewildered than I do at the moment."

82 CHANCE IN CHAINS

At this Deschamps broke into a torrent of
words.

"My friend," he said, "our troubles are at an
end! As Monsieur Charles has just said, one of
the most stupendous schemes that has ever entered
the human brain has come to me. By its means
we shall all become fabulously wealthy in a short
time if all goes well."

Basil was staring at his friend, wondering
whether he had taken leave of his senses, when
Charles Carnet interposed. "We shall not all
become wealthy," he said. "Edouard and I have
enough; we want no more. You will become
wealthy, and we shall have our revenge."

"I am listening," said Gregory rather stolidly.

As if by common consent the other three rose
from the table. "Come to the fire," Deschamps
said, speaking now in a low voice, "and you shall
hear everything."

They sat round the fire very close together, and,
looking round as if to be quite certain that there
was no one lurking in the recesses of the work-
shop, Deschamps began:

"Mon amir he said, putting his hand upon

CHANCE IN CHAINS 83

Basil's arm, "we are going to take a journey, you
and I."

"A journey'?" Gregory said.

"To Monte Carlo," Deschamps replied.

Then there was a silence; Basil felt his brain
whirling. "What do you mean?" he said at
length.

"I mean this," Deschamps answered, "that
fortune is within our grip at last, that we can now
make as much money as we like, enough to conduct
all our experiments and get out perfect models of
our invention to place before the world. I will
explain.

He threw away the cigarette which he had been
smoking and began to outline a plan so novel, a
conspiracy so absolutely without precedent in the
history'- of the v/orld, that his three listeners re-
mained spell-bound.

"Chance, and chance alone," he began, "has
placed the opportunity for the most sensational
coup of modern times in our hands. In the first
place, chance — the Spirit of Fortune, or what you
will — led us to this room in which we are sitting.
The Messieurs Camet, as you know, have for

84 CHANCE IN CHAINS

years been employed in making roulette wheels for
the Casino at Monte Carlo. As you have also
heard, they have resolved to give up their occupa-
tion. The tragedy which has saddened their lives
has been directly due to the existence of the great
gambling establishment. Both our friends would
give anything to be revenged upon the organisa-
tion which has wrecked their hopes, and owing to
the existence of which their so beloved nephew
met his untimely death."

A low mutter of assent broke from both the
little Frenchmen.

"Very well, then," Deschamps continued, "you
have wondered at my abstraction during the last
twenty-four hours. I could not speak to you. I
was absorbed. I hardly heard anything you said.
The whole forces of my intellect were focussed
upon one thought, one aim. The germ of an idea
came to me. It was like a lightning flash, illu-
minating with sudden splendour the dark skies of
night. The flash came and went, but the germ
of the idea remained behind. Since then I have
been working unceasingly at it, and now I be-
lieve I have it perfected. You, yourself, my dear

CHANCE IN CHAINS 85

friend, will be able to seize on any flaw, to im-
prove upon my original idea. Very well, then;
I came to our friends here, and told them that I
believed I could, if I would, deal the Administra-
tion of Monte Carlo an almost fatal blow. It
was, I explained to them, by means of science,
and more especially of your and my new inven-
tion, that this could be done. I pointed out to
them that it would require their co-operation. I
think I may say" — here he looked interrogatively
at the Carnets — "that directly I made my proposal
they agreed."

"We welcomed it with joy," said Brother
Edouard instantly. "To us also it came as a
lightning flash, illuminating the dark and showing
the word 'Revenge' in letters of fire upon the
horizon I"

Basil leant forward, deeply interested. As yet
he had not the slightest idea of what was coming.
Nevertheless, he was so impressed by Deschamps'
firm and confident manner that hope was beginning
to rise high within him, and an excitement to
which he had been a stranger for many days, be-
gan to flow over him like a tide.

86 CHANCE IN CHAINS

Moreover, he knew Deschamps so well that he
was certain that this was no vision. The French-
man was a Southerner, it is true, given to pictorial
flights of fancy in many ways. But when he be-
gan to speak of any matter connected with science
or their invention, he never made the slightest
overstatement. Science was his life and his re-
ligion.

"As yet," Deschamps said, "Monsieur Edouard
and Monsieur Charles know nothing of the actual
means I propose to employ. I am going to di-
vulge my plan in such a way that they, knowing
nothing of electricity and its powers, will be able
to understand my project in every detail. I shall
not use any technicalities beyond what are abso-
lutely necessary. But you, mon ami^ will under-
stand everything from the scientific point of view,
and you will see how perfectly feasible and likely
of success is what I propose to do."

He paused, and going to the table, poured out a
little water into a glass and drank it off. He
did not sit down again, but walked up and down
a measured beat of four yards, talking with intense
earnestness.

CHANCE IN CHAINS 87

"You know, gentlemen," he said to the
two wood-carvers, "what wireless telegraphy
means'?"

"But, yes," said Brother Charles, "have they
not just installed the Marconi system in the Eiffel
Tower ■? Of course, we know, but not, I think,
more than any ordinary member of the pub-
lic."

"Very well," said Deschamps. "Now I must
tell you that Monsieur Gregory here and myself
have for years been at work upon a system of
transmitting messages without wires, which, we be-
lieve, and indeed are certain, surpasses the inven-
tion of Signor Marconi as a modern battleship
surpasses an ancient wooden frigate. It is this
system of ours that I propose to employ in the
secret war against the Administration at Monte
Carlo. By its means we shall be able to win an
enormous sum of money at roulette. We shall
be able to win exactly how much, and when, we
please. Every detail is perfectly clear in my
mind, and discovery is almost im.possible with
the precautions I shall take. You must re-
member that the capital of Monte Carlo is un-

88 CHANCE IN CHAINS

limited. You know nothing of the place, Basil?"

Gregory shook his head.

"Then, pardon a short digression," Deschamps
continued, looking at the Carnets. "The gam-
bling rooms of Monte Carlo pay the Prince of
Monaco a yearly subsidy of eighty thousand
pounds for permission to carry on their business
in his territory. There are no rates and taxes in
Monte Carlo, the Casino pays them all. Educa-
tion is free. The Casino itself is a glittering
white palace upon the edge of the Mediterranean,
erected at an enormous cost, and decorated with
the most lavish splendour. Few kings have such
vast halls and salons in their palaces as those in
the temple of the Goddess of Chance. The Casino
is free to all the world, though, of course, the
Administration reserves the right of declining ad-
mission. The gardens that surround this palace
are the most beautiful in the world. Sometimes,
as if by touch of an enchanter's wand, the thou-
sand gardeners steal out in the night, and in the
morning vast parterres of flowers, which had been
all red and gold as the sun sank, are changed to
blue and white. In addition to this — and the

CHANCE IN CHAINS 89

expenses of the Principality are incalculable — the
company pays a revenue to its shareholders of over
twenty-five million francs I"

Basil had been listening with absorbed interest.
He started now. "Twenty-five million francs I"
he said, in an awed voice. "Clear profit after
those colossal expenses? A million English
pounds I"

"Exactly," Deschamps returned, "and I have
told you this so that you can see that the resources
of the company are practically unlimited. The
amount of their funds no one knows, but many a
national bank could not equal it. So you see, the
authorities are pledged for the sake of their own
continuance to pay any player his winnings, how-
ever enormous they may be. There have been
several cases of players quite recently winning
sums of two and a half million francs — a hundred
thousand pounds of your English money. But
we" — ^here his voice for the first time began to
tremble with excitement — " we can win whatever
we please! And now to the way in which it is
to be done."

Deschamps stopped short in his walk up and

90 CHANCE IN CHAINS

down. He leant against the work-table upon
which were the remains of the supper.

The eyes of the other three were fixed upon him
with an intense regard.

"You understand," he said to Basil, "the princi-
ple of roulette, do you not'?"

"Roughly," Basil answered; "the little ivory
ball about the size of a large marble is spun as you
spun it the other night, and falls into a numbered
slot. The people who have placed their money
upon a square of the table with a number corre-
sponding to that of the slot into which the ball
falls are the winners of varying amounts."

"That is more or less it," Deschamps replied.
"I am not concerned at the moment with anything
but the bare mechanical operation. The whirling
of the wheel at the bottom, the opposite course of
the ball, and the triangular silver stars which
break it, all make it a pure matter of chance into
which apartment upon the wheel the ball is going
to fall. It is obvious, therefore, that if by some
means the player could determine into which slot
the ball is to fall, he would have the bank at his
mercy."

CHANCE IN CHAINS 91

"Precisely," Basil said.

"Very well, then. It is a means by which this
may be attained that I have discovered. Of
course, you, as an electrical engineer, can easily
see that a roulette wheel might easily be con-
structed by the bank by which it could control the
falling of the ball and so prevent players who had
backed a particular number from winning. This
has often been done by dishonest people who run
private gambling hells. Upon the surface ever^'-
thing appears all right, but, of course, an expert
examination would very speedily result in the dis-
covery of the secret mechanism — generally, by the
way, electrical. Wires can be hidden in the leg
of the table upon which the wheel stands, and con-
trolled by the foot of the croupier who spins it.
But never before — and I wish you to keep this
point most carefully in mind — has it been pos-
sible for the player to control the wheel in ac-
tion without the connivance of the croupier or
the bank. Now listen." He began to address
himself now more particularly to the Carnet
Freres.

"The first detail in my plan is that the little

92 CHANCE IN CHAINS

ivory ball, while remaining to all appearance a
solid ball of ivory, is not really so. It will con-
tain a core or heart of steel. The very finest
workmanship alone could accomplish this with-
out any possibility of detection. I assume — am
I right in assuming? — that our friends, Messieurs
Charles and Edouard, could make a ball or balls
of this description."

The two little men, who had been listening with
rigid attention, spoke to one another rapidly for a
moment or two, using technical terms which the
others could not understand.

Then Brother Charles looked up. "We can do
it," he said proudly. "It will be difficult, very
difficult. First of all, there is the weight to be
considered, for the ball must not exceed a normal
weight. Then there must be a special quality of
ivory, and work in turning and hollowing so ex-
traordinarily fine and delicate that perhaps only
one of the Indian or Chinese carvers could do it so
that the operation showed no trace. I am cer-
tain that no one in France but myself and my
brother are capable of this feat, but you may rest
content — it is not beyond our powers I"

CHANCE IN CHAINS 93

The little man concluded with quiet pride, and
Deschamps showed unmistakable relief.

"I was certain of it," he said, "but, naturally, I
had some little anxiety. Everything, in the first
instance, depends upon that."

"We then have our prepared ball or balls — for
a whole set must be made. The next point is the
peculiar construction of the rotating wheel upon
which the slots are fixed. Then, you, Basil, will
immediately understand, but I must explain it
carefully to our friends, they will have to work
under my instructions, and with material which I
supply. The prepared wheel will be constructed
quite differently from the ordinary ones, though it
will look exactly the same, when painted with
the numbers. Each slot, messieurs, will be con-
structed of metal varying very slightly in composi-
tion. To all outward appearance the metal will
be just the ordinary tin amalgam generally em-
ployed. In reality, as far as the metal goes, each
slot will have, so to speak, a personality of its own
— a certain power of receptivity of certain in-
fluences which no other slot has."

He stopped for a moment, and suddenly Basil

94 CHANCE IN CHAINS

Gregory rose from his chair, and gave a great
shout of excitement. A glimmering, a faint glim-
mering, of the stupendous idea had come to him,
and he trembled all over with excitement.

The two little men were no less excited than he,
though as yet they were in the dark.

Deschamps made a movement with his hand,
Basil sat down again, and the Frenchman went on
speaking.

"My colleague here," he said, "is already be-
ginning to grasp the idea. In a very few more
words you will understand it also. I mentioned
wireless telegraphy to you just now. I also told
you that my friend and I had improved enor-
mously upon the present system, though, owing to
lack of money, we have never been able as yet to
place our invention upon the market or get it
recognised, while if we took it to quarters where
it would be appreciated and understood, we should
be robbed of nearly all the profits, as has hap-
pened v/ith many another inventor.

" Well, then, messieurs, the invention of my
friend and myself — I speak purposely in non-
technical terms — makes it possible for the mys-

CHANCE IN CHAINS 95

terious electrical power which sends messages over
thousands of miles of space — the Hertzian waves
in short — to penetrate through any amount of
material resistance in the form of the walls of
buildings, or barriers of any kind. Marconi has
already accomplished something of this; we have
perfected it. Now, in wireless telegraphy it is
already possible to 'tune' sets of instruments so
that the message sent at one end of the transmitter
will only be received at the other by a similarly
tuned receiver, this preventing the message being
picked up by other receivers as it flies through
space. I am about to apply this principle, greatly
facilitated by our invention, to the slots of the
roulette wheel. Each slot will be tuned separately
from its fellow. Having got thus far, let me ex-
plain to you that, by means of the Hertzian waves,
the operator will be able to turn a slot into a
temporary magnet of low power at any moment
he desires. That is to say, that when the prepared
wheel is being used upon the tables at Monte
Carlo, an operator with his instrument may be
three or four hundred yards away in the upper
room of a neighbouring hotel, or, if necessary, two

96 CHANCE IN CHAINS

miles away up upon the mountains of the Mari-
time Alps, and will be able to turn any slot he
desires into a magnet for just as long a period as
he wishes it to remain so. There will be no visi-
ble connection between the distant operator and
the wheel. It is absolutely impossible that the
people clustered round the wheel can know what
is going on. The great secret, silent power of
electricity will be at work, and yet entirely un-
suspected and unknown."

He paused again, and triumph dawned upon his
face as he saw that now not only did Basil Gregory
thoroughly understand the plan, but that the
brothers Carnet also had grasped the idea. Their
faces were blazing with amazement, their bodies
tense and rigid, there was no sound in the work-
shop but that of his own voice.

"The rest is easy to explain," he said. "If,
say, at a given moment, the slot painted seven is
converted into a low-power magnet directly the
wheel begins to revolve, then, as a natural conse-
quence, as soon as the velocity of the ball begins
to die away, and the attractive power of the mag-
net, which slot number seven has become, proves

CHANCE IN CHAINS 97

greater than the impelling force of the ball, the
ball which has a steel core will fall into slot num-
ber seven.

"You will observe, then, that the unseen opera-
tor any distance from the Casino is absolute master
of the play at the particular table where the pre-
pared wheel is.

"His confederate will play at this table. He
and the operator will carry watches that are abso-
lutely and utterly reliable, and which are syn-
chronised to a hundredth second of time. A
course of play is determined on. A sequence of
certain numbers is agreed upon between the two.
Let us say that the player enters the rooms at
twelve o'clock in the morning and secures his place
at the special table. At ten minutes past twelve
to the instant it is agreed that number seven, let us
say, is to receive the force of the Hertzian waves
for a certain definite period. As a usual thing, so
rapid is the paying out and gathering in of money
at the tables at Monte Carlo, the wheel is spun
every minute and a half. Of course, if the stakes
are very high, or if there is a dispute, a coup may
take a little longer. That, however, is a fair

98 CHANCE IN CHAINS

working average. For a little less than a minute
and a half, then, from the time agreed upon, i.e.,
ten minutes past twelve, seven will remain a mag-
net. For that particular spin seven must infal-
libly prove the winner. The thing can be re-
peated over and over again."

"It is marvellous I" the brothers shouted out in
chorus. "It will be impossible to detect. Mon-
sieur, you are the greatest mechanical genius the
world has ever seen !"

It was a great moment for Emile Deschamps.
All the theatrical instincts so deeply implanted
within him were gratified. To watch the faces of
his audience, to see the dawn of understanding and
admiration as he talked, had been to him like cool
water to one in the desert.

He stood still now, one hand upon his heart,
and bowed. He had no thought of mockery, the
gesture was perfectly spontaneous and sincere.
He turned to Basil.

"And you, my friend, what do you think of it*?"
he asked.

Basil started. He had been thinking furiously,
and the question came unexpectedly.

CHANCE IN CHAINS 99

" It is, of course, extremely brilliant," he said.
^'Naturally I can see that even more readily than
our friends here. I don't believe any brain but
yours, Emile, would ever have thought of it.
Properly worked, and there are a good many de-
tails I should like to discuss with you, it's almost
certain the scheme will succeed. But "

"Ah," Deschamps burst in, "the usual English
reservation! The invariable 'but' of caution!
What is it now, you cold-blooded islander^"

"Oh, it is not caution," Basil answered.
"Haven't I just told you that the thing must suc-
ceed with a few modifications upon your original
idea? It is the morality of the thing I am think-
ing of."

Deschamps had sat down. He jumped up now
like a Jack-in-the-box. ''Tiensr he cried.
"Morality? Morality?"

"I thought you had forgotten the meaning of
the word," Basil answered dryly. "It seems to
me — I only offer the opinion for what it is worth
— that while this little plan is about as alluring
a proposition as I ever heard, one of the most ele-
mentary problems of life has been quite lost sight

loo CHANCE IN CHAINS

of. We are going to steal — to put it quite
frankly. It is an iridium-pointed, hot-pressed,
wire- wove, jewelled-in-e very-hole sort of steal, I
know, but it is a steal all the same, isn't it"? I
am open to conviction, of course, and, by the way,
if anything goes wrong, conviction is just what
will occur. We have a little poem in England
which sums up the question in a nutshell —

He who prigs what isn't his'n,
When he's cotched will go to prison ;

or, to put it in simpler form still, *the penalty for
abstracting quids by electricity will be quod' —
you are a Latin scholar, I believe, Emile?"

The Frenchman made an impatient and angry
gesture of his hands.

"There is no time for blague" he said, "with
your quids and your quods. I know nothing of
your piggish English play upon words. Of
course, if it is the fear of discovery that deters you,
and the possibilities of arrest, well "

He did not conclude, but shrugged his shoul-
ders, and puffed out his lips with a peculiarly
French contempt.

CHANCE IN CHAINS loi

Basil was quite unmoved. "It is not that," he
said, "as you know very well, Emile. I would
risk anything upon any chance. Our lives at the
present moment are very like two puddings in a
fog. Prison could not be much worse. But I
do not quite see how one is going to reconcile this
marvellously ingenious plan of yours with or-
dinary morals. There have been lots of times
when you and I have wanted a bottle of wine or
a packet of cigarettes very badly, and hadn't the
money to pay for them. If I had proposed to
you to take a bottle of chambertin while the wine-
merchant was not looking — well I"

The two little Frenchmen had been listening
with keen attention to this dialogue. Basil's
English irony had been lost upon them, but they
understood the main lines of his objections well
enough.

It was Brother Edouard who came to the
rescue.

"Permit me to say a word," he interrupted in
his gentle, high-pitched voice. "The cases of
robbing a wine-merchant and the Administration
of Monte Carlo have not the slightest analogy.

102 CHANCE IN CHAINS

Your premises are false, Monsieur Gregoire.
This organisation at Monte Carlo is simply a soul-
less machine for the making of money by ex-
ploiting one of the baser passions of men. I and
my brother — I freely confess it — have been parts
of that machine for years. But you know the
sad event" — his voice trembled a little — "which
opened our eyes. We said to each other, 'If our
hopes in life have all been utterly swept away in
an instant by the Casino at Monte Carlo, how
many other homes have been ruined, young lives
sacrificed, prospects blighted?' A soldier who
assists to exterminate, or, at any rate, to harass
and injure a dangerous and unfriendly tribe of
savages is generally looked upon as doing a fine
and meritorious thing. Nor does he disdain to
take the pay of his country for so doing. You
and Monsieur Deschamps will be in exactly the
same case. You will be seriously injuring the
Casino. It may be that when the idea is de-
veloped roulette will become impossible, though
that is only a side issue, and also — here you must
listen to me carefully — you are not proposing to
obtain a large sum of money for the mere grati-

CHANCE IN CHAINS 103

fication of low pleasures, to acquire a soulless ease
and comfort. You have invented something
which will be of the highest benefit to mankind.
Want of fortune alone prevents you conferring
that benefit upon the world. As inventors, it is
your duty — at least, so it appears to me — to take
advantage of the opportunity which the genius
of Monsieur Deschamps has provided. No one
will be hurt except people who can well afford
to suffer."

His voice had gathered strength as he went on,
and as he concluded there was an almost prophetic
note in it, a gravity and seriousness of conviction
which had an instant effect upon Basil Gregory's
wavering mind.

He thought for a minute, and then looked up.

"So be it," he said. "You have convinced me,
though I will say I was ready enough to be con-
vinced. We will try it. Like all other gam-
blers, we will risk everything upon a single
throw."

As if by common consent, they all rose to their
feet.

"And now," said Brother Charles, who had

104 CHANCE IN CHAINS

hitherto been silent, "let us form ourselves into a
committee of ways and means."

Deschamps' face grew pale. "Mon Dieu!" he
cried, "fool that I am ! I have been carried away
by the splendour of the prospect, and have for-
gotten the most essential fact of all. Our friends
here" — he was speaking to Basil — "can prepare
the wheel with my assistance. But how about
the apparatus, which, as you know, is costly
enough for ordinary purposes'? The particular
apparatus I shall want with all our own modifica-
tions and specialities will cost about five thou-
sand francs. And then there is the getting to
Monte Carlo, the putting up at an expensive hotel
to avoid suspicion — for the Administration has
its spies and detectives everywhere. It may be
necessary to bribe, a thousand emergencies may
occur, which only money can overcome."

He dived one hand into the pocket of his
trousers, and withdrew four coins. He flung
them on the floor with a curse.

"Three francs fifty I" he cried; "three francs
fifty! Basil, I am a fool and a dreamer I You
can preserve your morality unspotted, after all I

i'>

CHANCE IN CHAINS 105

Basil looked blankly at his friend, who was
now limp with an almost ferocious dejection and
self-contempt. He nodded slowly.

"Same old thing," he said; "we ought to have
expected it. We are stumped, old chap, for want
of three or four hundred pounds."

An odd hissing noise, like the escape of steam
from a very small pipe, recalled him to his sur-
roundings. The brothers Carnet were regarding
the two young men with pity. "Ah I" said
Brother Charles, almost wringing his hands,
"What fools these men of genius are, Edouard!
Messieurs ! Messieurs ! my brother and I will, of
course, provide the funds. Haven't we already
told you that we are quite well-to-do for people
in our position? You will draw on us for any
money you may require. Nor must you spare the
francs. This is a great affair, conduct it greatly,
and you will earn our undying gratitude."

Once more the volatile Deschamps was trans-
formed from limp dejection to painful ex-
citability. He leapt at both the little men, and
embraced each in turn. He called down bless-
ings upon their heads, and then, in an instant,

io6 CHANCE IN CHAINS

assumed the manner of a calm business-like man.

He took a fountain-pen and an envelope from
his pocket.

"You will, of course, take whatever proportion
of our winnings you think fit, gentlemen," he said,
"and as far as the amount of the winnings is con-
cerned, you have only to say the word. It will
be as well to make a note of the terms at once,
and we will have a proper agreement drawn out."

The Camets looked at Basil Gregory as much
as to say, "What a hopeless person this Southerner
is I" Basil, far quicker than Deschamps to un-
derstand the odd little men, changed the subject at
once. "Never mind about that now, Emile," he
said. "Our friends have very kindly offered to
advance the money necessary for the great coup.
We had now better go into other details, so as not
to lose time. Financial affairs can be arranged
later."

Deschamps nodded. "Very well, then," he
said, "let us recapitulate what is absolutely neces-
sary to be done, immediately. In the first place,
you and I must give up our positions at the
Societe Generale."

CHANCE IN CHAINS 107

Basil started at this. "Is that really neces-
sary*?" he asked. "Couldn't we get leave?"

Deschamps shook his head. "I feel almost sure
they won't give us leave," he said. "We are only
members of the rank and file, remember. But
'nothing venture, nothing have,' — we must re-
sign."

"Very well," Basil replied, "we will give them
notice to-morrow." But as he said it he had a
curious heart-pang as he thought of Ethel, and
that, if anything went wrong, he must resign for
ever any hopes of calling her his own.

"Now, about experiments and the construction
of the apparatus," Deschamps continued. "We
must have a workshop, to begin with."

"This is at your service," the brothers said
eagerly.

Deschamps bowed. "A thousand thanks," he
said. "Nothing could be better fitted for the
purpose. Here we shall be absolutely secret.
You have a forge and many appliances which
will be useful. To-morrow I must buy other
machinery and certain tools. Fortunately you
have the electric light here, and I can tap one of

io8 CHANCE IN CHAINS

the plugs for all the current that I shall require
for experimental purposes."

Basil snapped his fingers as if an idea had just
come to him. "By Jove, Emile !" he said, "how
on earth shall we manage at Monte Carlo*? We
cannot work with batteries. First of all, we
could never get them into the hotel without be-
ing seen, and even if we did, we shouldn't have
enough power."

"You don't know the Principality," Emile an-
swered. "All the hotels have the completest in-
stallation of electric light possible. It will be
the simplest thing to tap one of the mains
and connect it with our new portable transfor-
mer. We can get exactly what current we re-
quire."

"Good," Basil said, realising how deeply his
friend had gone into the technical side of the
great coup.

Edouard Camet spoke. "If you will come here
to-morrow at midday," he said, "having already
resigned your posts at the Societe Generale, I will
have drawn a sufficient sum of money from the
bank to enable you to make all necessary pur-

CHANCE IN CHAINS 109

chases. Then we can go ahead as fast as we
like."

"But don't forget this, brother," Charles
Camet interposed, "our new wheels must be dis-
patched to Monaco. As a matter of fact, they
are expecting them immediately, but a telegram
saying that we require another fortnight will put
that right. We have had to take a little extra
time before now, during the past years. A fort-
night, however, is as much grace as we shall be
able to get and preserve our friendly relations
with the Administration. Will you be able
to do all that is necessary in the construction
of the apparatus within a fortnight*?"

"It will be quick work," Deschamps replied,
"but it can be done. My friend and myself can
construct the necessary apparatus for sending the
waves, and we can also, with your co-operation,
prepare the wheel and tune the slots for the re-
ception of the vibrations."

Then Basil spoke. "Look here, Emile," he
said, "a thought strikes me. Of course, I don't
know anything about the Casino, and I have never
been to the South of France, but won't it look

no CHANCE IN CHAINS

strangely suspicious if we win day by day at the
same table? Won't they change the wheel"?"

"That is exactly what they will do, monsieur,"
Edouard Carnet replied to him. "Of course,
when a man wins a large sum at one table he al-
ways goes to the same table to play. It is his
lucky table. But there was a case some years
ago when a little syndicate of players — by means
of the most careful calculations — noticed that the
wheel of the table where they made their game
had a slight bias. They traded on the fact for
several days, and won an enormous sum of money.
It was one of our wheels, but there must have
been a flaw in the wood, or we had not allowed
for the expansion of the metal, owing to the
greater heat of the South. At any rate, as a
result, the wheels have been constantly changed
ever since."

"Then, how can we carry out our plan?" Basil
asked.

"The wheels are not taken away entirely,"
Edouard went on; "they are simply changed from
table to table. The prepared wheel will have
some distinguishing mark by which you will know

CHANCE IN CHAINS in

it. We must think that out; it must be some
very slight thing — a knot in the wood, a mere
scratch on the outside, would do."

A dry little chuckle came from Brother
Charles.

"We are getting on I We are getting on!" he
said, with a grotesque mirth. "My brother, what
is to prevent us preparing three wheels'? They
should be 'tuned' — as Monsieur Deschamps calls
it — exactly alike. Each will be marked in some
way, so that our friends can distinguish them from
the unprepared wheels. There are twelve
roulette wheels in all used in the Salle des
Jeux."

"Bienl" Edouard replied; "your brain moves
quickly. By this means our friends will be able
to move from table to table as they wish."

"And I would suggest," Deschamps broke in,
"that we do not play for more than a week in
all. In a week's time we shall be able to win an
enormous sum of money, without unduly excit-
ing suspicion. Great runs of luck, I have ob-
served, generally last for about seven or eight
days. If, as Monsieur Charles suggests, we move

112 CHANCE IN CHAINS

from table to table, a week should be sufEcient.
We can go away with enormous sums, and no one
will be any the wiser."

"And another thing," Edouard Camet said,
"which of you is going to be the actual operator
of the telegraphic instrument, and which the
player at the tables'?"

"Oh, I'd much better play," Deschamps an-
swered, "and Basil work the instrument."

Both the Camets shook their heads at this.

"No," they said together, "that will be unwise.
Monsieur Gregoire is typically English. It is al-
ways best for a foreigner to make these great
coups. Moreover, the luck of the English and
the Americans is proverbial. Monsieur Gregoire
must be thought an English millionaire. No one
thinks it strange when a millionaire wins another
million! But, to safeguard the future, it would
be as well that monsieur were disguised."

Basil shook his head. "Disguised!" he cried.
"Oh, I don't like that idea at all!"

"It is necessary," Edouard Carnet said firmly;
"but all that you have to do, monsieur, is to shave
off that blonde moustache, darken your skin a lit-

CHANCE IN CHAINS 113

tie, and wear pince-nez. It is only ordinary cau-
tion, after all. When you return with the spoils
of war and grow your moustache again, nobody
will ever connect you with the winner of millions
upon the Cote d'Azur."

"And I have another idea," twittered Brother
Charles, his little face beaming with joy. "Mon-
sieur Deschamps shall go to Monte Carlo as the
valet of Monsieur Gregoire. It will all seem so
natural — the assiduous valet, the heavy luggage,
which the man-servant must guard! You see
it?"

The situation struck Basil as humorous. He
threw back his head and laughed aloud.
"Emile," he said.

Deschamps entered into the spirit of the thing.
"Bden, monsieur," he answered.

"Sit down at the table and teach me the rules
of the game of roulette I"

PART II

CHAPTER VI

Two men sat alone In a first-class compartment of
the Riviera train-de-luxe.

The night before the most luxurious train in
Europe had left the Gare de Lyon at Paris. The
night had been bitterly cold, and as the vast ma-
chine swung out of the station all the suburbs of
Paris and, indeed, the plains of mid-France, were
seen through the dark windows of the corri-
dors to be covered with a white sprinkling of
snow.

A special carriage was reserved for a Monsieur
Montoyer and his valet, and the two persons men-
tioned upon the ticket had spent the whole night
in the luxurious cabin, with its beds and little
tables, talking earnestly.

Monsieur Charles Edouard Montoyer was an
athletic, burly looking young man, dressed in the
height of French fashion, clean-shaved, dark-com-
plexioaed, and wearing goLd-rimmed spectacles,

"7

ii8 CHANCE IN CHAINS

which only partially concealed a pair of blue eyes
which seemed oddly at variance with his otherwise
Southern appearance. His hair also was a dead
black, and in certain lights it had an almost
metallic lustre.

The valet presented no very extraordinary ap-
pearance, except that he seemed markedly in-
telligent and alert. His black hair was closely
cropped to a large and well-shaped head. His
complexion was of the true Southern swarthy
tint, glowing out below the skin, as it were. He
wore a small black moustache, and the long first
finger of his right hand was deeply stained with
the juice of cigarettes.

Once, about an hour after the start, the valet
went to the restaurant car, and brought back two
bowls of soup, and a bottle of Pomard, explaining
to the waiter who gave them that his master was
very hungry and one tureen would be insufficient.
But when the door of the sleeping-car was locked,
the blinds looking on the corridor drawn down,
the table set, and all the electric lights switched
on, a spectator — had there been one there — would
have seen with some surprise that master and man

CHANCE IN CHAINS 119

shared the meal equally. And perhaps he would
have thought it a touching testimony of the
theoretical equality of Republican France that
master and man addressed each other b}- their
Christian names.

In short, the great enterprise was begun, Basil
and Emile, their apparatus made, their plan of
campaign concluded, were roaring and crashing
through France to the fairy-like shores of the
Mediterranean.

It was now close upon nine o'clock in the morn-
ing. The blinds of the sleeping-car were still
drawn upon the corridor side, but the two men
were dressed. Their hand luggage was strapped
and they were smoking cigarettes.

"In a moment more, Basil," said Emile, his
voice trembling with excitement, ''in a moment
more you shall have your first vision of the South !
I would not let you look before and, indeed, as we
went through Avignon it was too dark to see much,
but Marseilles — my beloved native cit)^ — is the
Gate of the South. You will see little of
it, as within an hour we shall be pulling out
again for the Cote d'Azur, but you will see some-

120 CHANCE IN CHAINS

thing; you will at least breathe the enchanted air!"

Deschamps' voice was most powerfully affected.
For a moment he had forgotten the enterprise en-
tirely. He was only consumed with an over-
mastering eagerness that his dearest friend and
partner should breathe with him that subtle, in-
toxicating air, and realise for the first time in his
life what the South means.

There was a long grinding of the brakes, and
the train stood still. Emile drew up the blinds,
opened the door into the corridor, and led Basil
to the end of the car. Then they stepped down
to the low platform.

They had left Paris in sullen bitter winter
weather. Here, early as it was, the sun was shin-
ing brilliantly in the cool, quiet station. Exactly
facing them was a huge stall of flowers, masses
of purple violets, delicate ivory-coloured roses
from Grasse, the pale golden plumes of the
mimosa.

But the air! the air was the thing! So warm
and sweet it was, it came upon them with such a
veritable caress, it so bathed them with golden
light and sweet odours, that tears started into

CHANCE IN CHAINS 121

Deschamps' eyes, and Basil forgot his disguise.

"How wonderful ! how wonderful !" he said in
English, breathing like a man who had been stifled
all his life.

' And that was their first glimpse of the en-
chanted country to which they had come.

Through all the morning until mid-afternoon
the train moved, slowly and sleepily now, through
scenes of loveliness such as the Englishman, at
any rate, had never dreamed of. Everywhere the
Mediterranean gleamed like an immense sapphire,
flecked here and there with white fire. The low
cliffs of sandstone were crimson. The sky was an
inverted bowl of glowing turquoise, and every-
where tall, feathery palms were silhouetted
against it in brilliant green. And there were
flowers, flowers everywhere! Every station with
its familiar name was full of flowers — Grasse,
Cannes, Nice, Villefranche — there were flowers
everywhere; flowers, exotic trees, and great white
hotels that gleamed jewel-like in terrace after ter-
race from the sea till they were lost in the high
places of the Maritime Alps.

And then — at last — Monaco, a few tunnels cut

122 CHANCE IN CHAINS

in the cliffs, and the long, low station of Monte
Carlo at last!

During the whole period of the slower journey
along the seashore Basil Gregory's excitement had
been gradually growing. He and Deschamps had
talked but little, but both of them had been ob-
sessed by the great idea that they were getting
nearer and nearer to the world-famous theatre of
their colossal enterprise.

Monte Carlo ! Monte Carlo I The words had
beaten themselves into a rythm in Basil's brain, a
rythm in tune with the regular pulsing of the
engine.

They were to stay at the Hotel Malmaison, for
the brothers Carnet had insisted that the two
young men should lack nothing, and that Basil
should appear to be a person of great wealth and
consequence. There was to be no hole-and-corner
business about the great coup. Suspicion was to
be averted by every possible means. "J/ fait
aller en regal^'' Brother Charles had insisted, and
so it was to be. Rooms had been engaged in ad-
vance, a sitting-room and bedroom for Monsieur
Charles Edouard Montoyer, and a bedroom for

CHANCE IN CHAINS 123

his valet. It had been stipulated, however, that
the valet's bedroom should be at the very top
storey of the hotel, as that personage suffered from
asthma.

The Malmaison was only some four hundred
yards from the station, and in consequence some
three hundred from the Casino. They drove there
in the waiting omnibus, however, and at five
o'clock were installed in their rooms.

It was a little difficult to account for two large
boxes among the luggage, of extraordinary heavi-
ness, which were placed in the sitting-room of
Monsieur Montoyer. But the ready Deschamps
in his role of valet explained that monsieur was a
great student, and always travelled with many
books.

"I go now, mon ami,'' Emile said, ''to my own
room. All your clothes are unpacked. I must
not stay here too long at present. I shall have
to meet all the other servants and gossip with
them, but I will come at seven to assist you to
dress, and then we can make our plans."

Basil was left alone in the brightly furnished
sitting-room-. He looked down into a terraced

124 CHANCE IN CHAINS

garden, brilliant still with the declining rays of
the sun. Somewhere near by a band of guitars
was playing accompanied by voices as sweet and
passionate as they.

He strolled up and down the room thinking
deeply. But it was not of the fairyland in which
he found himself, it was not of the glories he was
soon to witness, it was not even of the great hazard
he was to try — the bold and reckless bid for for-
tune. It was of Ethel he was thinking.

CHAPTER VII

About ten o'clock in the morning of the day on
which Basil Gregory and Emile Deschamps had
arrived at Monte Carlo, another train had pulled
into the long low station on the Mediterranean
shore.

This train was very different from the huge,
luxurious machine that brought the adventurers to
the City of Fortune earlier in the day. It was
the ordinary slow train, the third class, not even a
rapide^ and only a few second-class carriages were
included in its make-up. Moreover, it had taken
two whole days, and nights in its journey from
Paris, being everywhere shunted aside for the
rapides and trains de luxe to pass through.

From this train of poorer people two English
ladies, quietly dressed, and pale and stained with
travel under none too pleasant conditions, had
descended.

They were driven at once with their trunks to a

125

126 CHANCE IN CHAINS

modest 'pension in the Rue Grimaldi in Monaco,
and spent some hours in sleep.

Ethel McMahon had told her lover in Paris
that she had obtained a fortnight's leave of ab-
sence from her school, had saved a little money,
and was about to take her mother to Switzerland
for a change of air.

Basil had accepted the statement implicitly,
glad to hear that the girl he loved was to have a
short respite from her labours, and, for his own
part, finding that the proposed holiday would co-
incide with his own absence from Paris, he said
nothing of his plans. So it had been arranged,
and the two lovers were mutually ignorant of
each other's purposes and without the slightest
idea that they were bound for the same destina-
tion. Mrs. McMahon had absolutely refused to
allow Ethel to communicate a word of their proj-
ect to Gregory, and the girl was all the more
ready because by now she was thoroughly infected
with her mother's enthusiasm, and was absolutely
convinced in her own mind that they were to
gain a small fortune at the tables.

How splendid it would be to come to Basil and

CHANCE IN CHAINS 127

to tell him that they could be married at once I
That funds for the launching of the great inven-
tion were forthcoming, that all was to end as
happily as some old song!

About six o'clock Ethel went into her mother's
room. The rest had refreshed her. Her eyes
were glowing with excitement, and with her long
hair falling over her dressing-gown she seemed
the personification of radiant hope.

"Now, what are we to do, mother*?" she said
excitedly. "How do you feel*?"

The older woman was seated in the one arm-
chair the little bedroom of the pension boasted, and
was anxiously scrutinising a bundle of faded pa-
pers covered with figures and bold masculine hand-
writing.

"It is certain, Ethel !" she said. "I have been
going through your father's figures for the hun-
dredth time. I am sure it can't fail. You know
he only invented this particular system just before
he died, and we never had an opportunity to try
it properly."

Ethel nodded, "I feel just as you do, mother,
dear," she answered. "It can't fail. But what

128 CHANCE IN CHAINS

are we to do? Are you thoroughly rested*?"
"I feel in better health," the old lady answered,
"than I have felt for years. Excitement would
keep me up if nothing else would, but, as it is, I
have no trace of fatigue. What's the use of
spending the evening in this dull pension with
these third-rate people, for such of the guests as I
have seen are rather a seedy-looking lot, and
Madame de Bonville is just the ordinary Southern
Frenchwoman who keeps a place of this sort?
No! We will dress, have dinner, and take a cab
to the Casino. There will be no difficulty about
obtaining our tickets for this evening. We shall
have to renew them each day, until we have been
here for some time — if, indeed, it is necessary to
remain here. After a week or two they give you
a ticket for a month, but I don't suppose we shall
need that." ,

"Then we are to begin to-night!" Ethel cried,
a flush mounting in her cheeks and her voice ring-
ing with anticipation.

The elder lady smiled. "We will not begin
the system to-night," she answered. "That, I do

CHANCE IN CHAINS 129

think, would be unwise. We will take a louis or
two and get a place at one of the tables, if we can,
and just see what happens. I want you to get
accustomed to a scene which will seem extraor-
dinarily strange to you. We will take it that we
are merely reconnoitring this evening, and begin
serious play upon the morrow. Dinner is at half-
past seven, so go and prepare yourself, my child,
and then come and help me."

Ethel left the room and crossed the passage to
her own, singing for sheer lightness of heart. Al-
ready the beauty of the South had caught hold of
her, and such glimpses of it as she had seen only
intensified her mood. In her innocence she had
not the slightest misgiving. She would have
laughed to scorn anyone who had told her that
there was a chance of losing the little unexpected
capital that had come to them from the lottery.

Dinner at the pension de Bonville was the or-
dinary polyglot affair. An English major — no
regiment specified — some stolid Germans, three
shrill-voiced American girls, and some nondescript
and rather haggard looking young men made up

130 CHANCE IN CHAINS

the company. Doings at the Casino during the
day were compared and discussed. The little
cards, printed in red and black, which are pro-
vided by the Casino authorities for recording the
play, and pricked each time the wheel is spun,
were handed about, and in this atmosphere, so
familiar to her in the past, old Mrs. McMahon
seemed like a changed being. She talked with the
rest, in English or fluent French; she was like
some old war horse once more snuffling the breeze
of battle, and Ethel was no less interested and
entranced, though her knowledge of roulette — for
none of the pensionnaires seemed to indulge in the
more expensive trente-et-quarante — was purely
theoretical.

After dinner the major gallantly offered to
escort the ladies to the Casino and to obtain their
tickets. Shortly afterwards, muffled in opera
cloaks, for between eight and nine is often the
coldest hour of the day on the Riviera, the three
walked up the steep, winding way towards the
Palace of Chance.

A full moon hung in the sky; everywhere were
brilliant illuminations; the air as it proved was

CHANCE IN CHAINS 131

not at all cold upon this night, but soft and odor-
ous of flowers.

The gardens of the Casino were like enchant-
ment to Ethel McMahon. It was indeed a scene
from the ''Abrabian Nights." The tall palms
clicked faintly in the breeze with a sound like dis-
tant castanets. The electric lights shone down
upon enormous beds of flowers which everj^where
studded the lawns. Faint music was heard on
every side, and gaudily painted and luxurious
automobiles flitted noiselessly along the polished
roadways.

Here was the great Hotel de Paris, its long
fagade glowing with colour, full of the wealthiest
people in the world, dining very differently from
the way in which the major and his new friends
had dined in the Rue Grimaldi. Beyond, on the
other side of the square, were the gardens of the
Metropole, and the glass Cafe de Paris at its side
winked and glittered like a gigantic topaz.

'That, my dear," said Mrs. McMahon, point-
ing to a modest looking restaurant in an arcade,
"that is Ciro's."

Ethel's sense of humour was tickled by the calm

132 CHANCE IN CHAINS

patronage of the information. She knew, of
course, that she was looking upon the most fa-
mous restaurant in the whole world, but her
mother's tone amused her.

And then, in a moment, she had no thought but
one.

Before her was a magnificent building of white
marble with many steps leading to a wide en-
trance, glistening against the background of dark
sky, spangled with golden stars.

Mrs. McMahon clutched her daughter's arm.
"There!" she said, almost in an awed whisper.
"Now you see it for the first time. That is the
Casino!"

For a moment all three were silent. The spirit
of chance, the terrible fever of the gambler was
in their blood, and even the tough old major, an
habitue of every gambling hell in Europe, shared
for a moment the emotion of his companions as
they surveyed the supreme Temple of Chance.

They went up the steps, Ethel alert to every-
thing she saw, and turned into a long office to
the left, rather more like a small bank than any-
thing else.

CHANCE IN CHAINS 133

Two or three civil, quickly glancing French-
men, in black frock coats, were standing in this
room before the counter. Ethel was conscious of
a quick all-embracing scrutiny from three pairs
of dark eyes, she heard her name spoken in French
by one of the officials, and shortly afterwards two
purple cards, bearing the mystic words:

"Cercle des Etrangers,
Valahle pour un jour,"

and with their names written upon the back in
thin clerkly script, were handed to them.

From there, into a vestibule where cloaks were
exchanged for metal discs with a number upon
them, and then in their evening frocks, but still
wearing their hats, the two ladies passed with
their cavalier into the Atrium.

The huge hall, with its galleries, marble
columns and tesselated floor, its gleaming lights in
the roof, and its little groups of people dotted here
and there under the galleries or in the centre space,
reminded Ethel of a dance she had once attended
in England at the magnificent town hall of a great
Northern city. Everyone was in evening dress,

134 CHANCE IN CHAINS

everyone talked animatedly, new arrivals kept
constantly pouring in. But at one end of this
enormous hall, where the huge marble pillars clus-
tered more thickly, was a series of great swing
doors of an abnormal height, doors which con-
stantly opened noiselessly and closed again. And
round the doors were innumerable officials in their
long frock coats, standing there watching and
waiting as the votaries of Chance pressed in-
wards to the very sanctum of the Temple.

Mrs. McMahon nodded. "Come, Ethel," she
said in a voice that was positively hoarse with
excitement, "the rooms are in there ; let us go."

The two ladies walked up the long hall, pre-
sented their cards to an official who glanced at
them and bowed, and then one of the great doors
swung open and they entered. Although it was
early yet, the rooms were fairly full.

Ethel found herself in an enormous salon of
great height, and with a polished parquet floor.
It resembled nothing so much as an immense ball-
room in some royal palace. The walls were cov-
ered by huge pictures let into the gilded panelling,
separated from each other by pilaster after pilaster

CHANCE IN CHAINS 135

of gold. The ceilings, also, where electric lights
glowed brilliantly, were painted, and the general
effect was one of almost overpowering magnifi-
cence. Beyond this huge salon she saw, under an
immense archway, there was another and even
larger one crossing it at right angles, and beyond
that still another. The size and splendour of
the place made her catch her breath and dazzled
her eyes. "How wonderful!" she whispered to
her mother.

Her next impression was that she was in some
church I Despite the gorgeous decoration cer-
tainly not in the least ecclesiastical, the size and
shape, the curious hush and silence that pervaded
everything, helped the impression. There was
only the very lowest murmur of conversation per-
ceptible. Women in astonishingly gorgeous toi-
lets, with gold purses hanging from their wrists
by jewel-studded chains, moved slowly up and
down the parquet floor with a rustling of skirts.
The air was full of mingled perfume and sug-
gested that odour of incense in a cathedral.

As all these impressions crowded into her mind,
the girl's eyes became more used to the surround-

136 CHANCE IN CHAINS

ings, and she saw, at intervals under the high
dome-like roof, long tables were set, each one as
long as two billiard tables. There were four of
them in this first salon, and many more stretched
away in the vista of brilliance. The air was quite
clear, nobody was smoking, and she could see
everything very distinctly.

Around each table was a thick cluster of people,
men and women, almost entirely hiding it from
view.

She turned to the table nearest her.

Around it, without any intervals, people were
sitting in chairs. Behind them stood other people,
at some tables two deep. Above the tables were
suspended huge lamps with green shades — like the
lights over a billiard table, though not so bril-
liant.

"Why, they are oil lamps !" Ethel said in a low
voice to her mother. "How strange and anti-
quated I"

Mrs. McMahon smiled.

"If they had electric lights immediately over
the tables," she said, "or even gas, some of the
gangs of bad characters who infest Monte Carlo

CHANCE IN CHAINS 137

would find means to cut the pipes or wires, and in
the confusion anybody could take what money he
pleased." She clutched her daughter's arm
tightly. "Child," she said, in an impressive voice,
"at any one of these tables at the present moment,
lying about, unprotected, in notes and gold, there
is at least fifty thousand pounds!"

At that moment the major drew their attention
to the fact that at a table immediately ahead of
them there was a little stir and movement.

A very tall and handsome young man had risen
from his chair. His face was a little flushed and
his eyes sparkled, while he tried in vain to conceal
the smile of pleasure and excitement upon his lips.
Several of the other people at this table, who all
appeared to know him, rose also and began to
congratulate him in low voices.

"That is the Archduke Theodore," the major
said in a husky whisper. "He is a cousin of the
Tsar. For the last week he has been winning
enormous sums, and apparently he has done so
again to-night. His pockets are simply bulging
with notes I"

Mrs. McMahon looked significantly at Ethel.

138 CHANCE IN CHAINS

Then she saw her chance. ''Come," she said,
*'we can sit down at this table. This is a very
fortunate chance." They went to the table and
found two chairs unoccupied, slipping into them
quickly in the momentary diversion created by the
Archduke's success, and for the first time Ethel
McMahon sat actually a guest of the unknown
goddess of Fortune, and about to woo her.

To the girl's unaccustomed eyes the scene was
bewilderingly strange. The long expanse of
green baize cloth stretched away on either side of
her. It was marked with numbered squares and
triangles, while at one end were two huge dia-
monds of red and black in either corner. She
faced a row of people, men and women in correct
evening costume, save that the women, like her-
self, wore the large hats which are de rigueur in
the Casino. Jewels gleamed bewilderingly almost
everywhere. Exactly opposite her was a woman
who was simply plastered with diamonds, and yet
next this gorgeous vision with the painted face
and laughing eyes, with a king's ransom round her
throat and in her hair, sat an elderly yellow-faced
woman in a black dress and without a single orna-

CHANCE IN CHAINS 139

ment — more quietly and even shabbily dressed
than Mrs. McMahon herself. There were two
fresh-faced English boys, who looked like soldiers,
there was an enormous black-bearded Bulgarian,
with eyes like black velvet and hands like fat
claws.

And all these people, on the green baize before
them, had wads of notes or piles of gold, save
only the old lady, before whom were only a few
five-franc pieces — the minimum stake allowed at
Monte Carlo.

And on the numbers themselves money was al-
ready beginning to be placed from every part of
the table. Sometimes the people pushed it them-
selves on the chosen numbers, sometimes, when
they were too far away, they gave it to one of the
silent croupiers who sat round among the people
and pushed the coins to the destined spot with
their long india-rubber-tipped rakes.

Dividing the long table in the centre was the
wheel itself, and the croupier in charge of it was
already fingering the ivory ball. Behind him, on
a higher seat, sat the official in charge of all the
others engaged at this table, and from his lips

140 CHANCE IN CHAINS

came the occasional croak of the famous "Faites
vos jeux, messieurs: faites vos jeux."

Ethel had three golden louis in her purse. It
was all the money that they had brought with
them.

Her mother had told her that beginners nearly
always won the first time they played — a very
common superstition among gamblers, and one
which, for some reason or other, seems to be
amply justified.

"What shall I do, mother?"

"Do whatever you like," Mrs. McMahon an-
swered quickly. "I mustn't influence you or it
will spoil the luck."

Ethel hesitated, and as she did so the croupier
swung the capstan and spun the ball.

A low, humming whirr broke the silence.

"Quick! quick I" whispered Mrs. McMahon,
"make your stake or it will be too late."

Hardly knowing what she did, Ethel pushed
her three louis on to the green cloth, and as she
did so the ball began to rattle on the diamond-
shaped pieces of silver at the side of the bowl, and
the croupier called out sharply, "Rien ne va plus^*

CHANCE IN CHAINS 141

announcing that no more stakes could be put upon
the table.

Ethel had pushed her three golden louis exactly
upon the edge of the line which divided six num-
bers, from 13 to 18, unconsciously played what is
called a transversale simple.

If any of these six numbers turned up she would
win five times her original stake. And now — it
all passed in a few seconds — the ball was rattling
among the compartments, clicking like a pair of
castanets. There was a final click as it fell into
the slot, the croupier put out his finger and stopped
the capstan, announcing the number — "Rouge —
dix-huit!''

Red had turned up, but with that Ethel had no
concern as she had not backed the colour, but 18
had won, though for a moment she did not realise
it.

Then followed what to her was an extraordi-
nary scene. The long rakes of the croupiers shot
out from every part of the table, threading their
way in and out among the masses of gold, silver
and bank notes with extraordinary rapidity and
the most delicate manipulation.

14^ CHANCE IN CHAINS

A small fortune was swiftly swept away into
the bank until the table was comparatively bare.
It was all done with the precision of a machine,
without a single mistake, and hardly was it com-
pleted when the stakes of those who had won
were being added to in a golden shower.

It takes a croupier at Monte Carlo a whole year
to learn his business, but when he has learnt it no
juggler upon the stage can provide a more startling
exhibition. Coins flew from rapidly moving
hands in a continuous stream, as if liquid gold was
being squirted from a hose. No single coin rolled
off its appointed square, but fell flat and motion-
less within an inch of the stake at which it was
aimed. And now the rakes were pushing money
towards the fortunate, not gathering it in any
more, and, almost ere eager or indifferent hands
had gathered up what Fortune had sent them,
stakes were again being spread over the board for
the next coup. To Ethel, who had not in the
least known what had happened, there suddenly
came a shower of gold falling just before her upon
her original three louis.

CHANCE IN CHAINS 143

She stared at it bewildered, and the big Bul-
garian opposite smiled at her ignorance.

Not so Mrs. McMahon. "That is yours,
Ethel," she said; "that is yours. You've won,
after all." And as if in a dream the girl drew
the glittering pile towards her. Fifteen louis, and
her own three coins back again! Fifteen louis!
More than thirteen English pounds — come to her
as if by magic in less than a minute; her own, her
very own to do as she liked with.

"I can't believe it!" she whispered to her
mother. "It can't be true — all this — more than
a quarter's salary in a minute !"

Old Mrs. McMahon was trembling with ex-
citement, but there was triumph in her voice.

"My dear," she said, in those very tones of
calm superiority which she had used when the
lottery ticket had at last turned up trumps, "this is
nothing. What did I tell you !"

"What shall I do now?" was Ethel's only an-
swer. "Perhaps it would be better to do noth-
ing."

Mrs. McMahon caught at the word with the

144 CHANCE IN CHAINS

true gambler's instinct. "My dear," she said,
"put one of those louis upon zero."

There was a croupier three or four seats away
from the girl. She leant forward, being now a
little more accustomed to what she was doing,
'''Zero^ sHl vous plait^ monsieur^^ she said, tossing
the coin to him.

"£;2 plein^ mademoiselle?'''' he asked.

Ethel turned to her mother. "What does he
mean?" she said. Mrs. McMahon interposed.
"Oz/2, en plein," she replied to the man. "You
see, Ethel, it is rather unusual to stake a coin upon
a single number, because you have thirty-five
chances against you. Most people do what you
did just now — cover several numbers and be con-
tent with smaller winnings. But you said 'noth-
ing,' and it may be an omen."

Again the ball spun, and now, in full conscious-
ness of what was happening, Ethel knew excite-
ment so fierce and keen, so utterly overpowering
and absorbing, that it burned within her like a
flame, and frightened her by its intensity.

Her coin was the only one upon zero, which is
the bank's number, for when it turns up all the

CHANCE IN CHAINS 145

stakes upon the board are taken by the bank, ex-
cept those placed upon red or black, or the other
even chances.

Dame Fortune was very kind to-night, for with
a slight emphasis the croupier at the wheel called
out "Zero," and several people within her vicinity
turned to look with envy or amusement, as the
case might be, at the beautiful girl who had alone
staked upon the big white "O."

They paid her in notes this time, and Mrs. Mc-
Mahon leant back in her chair with a gasp.
*Tool I Fool that I was," she whispered, her
.hands clasping and unclasping themselves. "You
had the money ; you might have put on the maxi-
mum of nine louis, and you would have won, my
dear, you would have won, and you would have
won 6,300 francs — £252!"

"But, mother," Ethel whispered back, "I have
won seven hundred francs already, and three hun-
dred with the first spin, that is a thousand francs
— almost my year's salary at the school !"

"You have been very fortunate " said the old
lady. "And now let us go."

"Let us go, mother? No, look; they are be-

146 CHANCE IN CHAINS

ginning to spin again. Let me try once more^"

Mrs. McMahon gathered up the gold and crisp
notes of the Bank of France and placed them in
her chain purse.

"My dear," she replied, "I am almost as keen
as you are to go on, but let us be content with our
great good fortune. We shall have all the more
money to play with when we begin upon the sys-
tem to-morrow."

They vacated their seats, which were im-
mediately occupied by people who had been stand-
ing behind them, and moved slowly through the
great hall towards the doors. By this time the
rooms were thronged with people of all nationali-
ties.

The wealthiest millionaires of London, Paris
and Vienna rubbed shoulders with well-dressed
scoundrels known to the police of all three capi-
tals. There was a reigning king present — a tall,
elderly man with a long white beard — half the
nobilities of Europe were represented. The most
expensive and extravagant toilets to be found any-
where in the world at that hour were seen on
either side, and yet there was a proportion of

CHANCE IN CHAINS 147

the players as poor in worldly goods as Ethel Mc-
Mahon and her mother themselves; retired army
men in whom the gambling fever burned and
would burn until their death, young spendthrifts
who had come to ^pend their all upon a last chance,
financial defaulters who hoped by one smile of
the goddess Fortune to restore money which was
not theirs, and to yet preserve their honour in the
eyes of the world.

And through this motley and brilliant crowd —
the strangest crowd in Europe, in the strangest
place — Ethel and her mother moved as if in a
dream.

In the mind of the old lady a fierce and feverish
greed flared like a naphtha lamp. In the mind
of the girl there was but one thought, crystallised
into a name — Basil ! Basil ! Basil !

They were near the end of the last salon and
coming up to the long swing doors when Ethel
started violently and half stopped.

Standing at one of the tables, within two or
three yards of her, was a tall, well-built man in
evening dress. His back was towards her, and
there was something so absolutely familiar in the

148 CHANCE IN CHAINS

shoulders, the poise of the stranger, that she
gasped.

For a moment she thought she saw Basil
Gregory again — dear Basil, who was far away at
the electric light works in Paris.

Then the stranger made a half turn. He was
clean shaved, his complexion was swarthy, his hair
was black. He was dressed also in the height of
the French fashion.

No ! It was not Basil, though even now there
was something strangely reminiscent of her lover
to the girl's eyes.

With a sigh, she passed out of the Atrium with
her mother. They got their cloaks and walked
slowly down the hall to the Condamine. The air
was "all Arabia." A huge moon rode high in the
heavens and washed the Mediterranean with
silver. The flowers of the gardens sent forth an
overpowering perfume — the night was sweet and
dear.

"Basil! Basil! Basil!''

"... To-morrow, my dear, we will get prop-
erly to work on the system. To-morrow !"

CHAPTER VIII

It was six o'clock on the following evening.

In a tiny room high up in the Hotel Malmaison,
above the servants' quarters, and on the roof, in-
deed— for the valet of Monsieur Montoyer was
asthmatic and must breathe the freshest air pos-
sible— Emile Deschamps was standing.

The blinds were drawn, the room was lit by
candles stuck in bottles, and presented the air
more of a workshop than a bedroom.

The bed was littered with pliers, coils of in-
sulated wire, strips of thin india-rubber, and a tube
of vulcanised paste for making joints. Upon a
large mahogany table close to the window stood
a complicated apparatus.

At one end there was a battery of Ley den jars,
then came the intricate induction coil upon a
polished stand, its brass terminals glittering in the
light of the candles. Beyond was the interrupter
magnet and beyond that again the stout "seven-
sixteens" wire which led to the electric light cas-

I4Q

ISO CHANCE IN CHAINS

ing in the wall, where the hotel current had been
tapped to take the place of a dynamo.

Upon that part of the table where the inter-
rupter magnet was, there was an apparatus which
in some degree resembled the keyboard of a type-
writer. No letters were on these keys however.
They bore numbers only, from one to thirty-six,
with the addition of a nought to represent zero.

Deschamps, in list slippers, was walking nerv-
ously up and down the room. Perspiration shone
upon his face. His eyes had a fixed introspective
stare. He was obviously in a state of the highest
possible tension.

Up and down the room he paced, like some
caged animal, and every now and again he rolled
a cigarette, lit it, and inhaled a few whiffs of
pungent blue smoke, and threw it away. Now
and then he poured himself out a cup of strong
coffee from a little cafetiere which stood upon the
mantelshelf. On the hearth burned a small glow-
ing fire of the mountain wood and fir cones which
are used upon the Riviera, and beside it stood
a soldering "iron" of copper, a file, and a bottle
of zinc chloride solution.

CHANCE IN CHAINS 151

Deschamps looked at his watch.

"Basil is late," he muttered to himself, mopping
his brow as he did so with a very dingy handker-
chief. ''Mon Dieu^ if only this were over I"

He resumed his walk, thinking deeply, check-
ing off each incident of the great adventure, the
great fight of science against the precautions and
wariness of the most complete and cunning or-
ganisation in Europe.

The plans of the partners had been altered and
modified. As the preparations continued in Paris
and the scheme was discussed a thousand times,
and with an infinity of detail which crystallised
more and more into definiteness, the most impor-
tant thing that was at length determined on —
and the Carnet brothers had been in thorough
agreement — was that play should only last for
one night. The confederates had thought that
phenomenal winnings, protracted over two or
three days, would inevitably give rise to suspicion.
These suspicions would, in all human probability,
be absolutely wide of the real mark. But, at any
rate, they would be certain to result in the wheel
at the table where Monsieur Charles Edouard

152 CHANCE IN CHAINS

Montoyer made his colossal coups being changed
for another.

It was resolved, therefore, that Basil should
play, with the aid of the unseen electric influences,
for one evening only. The whole thing had been
worked out, and it had been found that it would
be easy, if nothing went wrong, for him to win an
enormous sum even within a few hours. Directly
that was accomplished Deschamps would pack his
apparatus and return to Paris. Basil would re-
main at Monte Carlo for a few days and venture
a few small sums to avoid suspicion. After that
he would rejoin his friend.

There was a low knock at the door, an interval
of silence, and then five more distinct taps.

Deschamps knew that Basil was without, and
he quietly unlocked the door and let in his friend.

Basil, tall, foreign looking, and in the most
scrupulously chosen evening dress, entered the
dingy little bedroom with its litter of machinery
and tools. The door was locked behind him and
the partners were alone together.

Deschamps started. "Mon Dieu!" he said,
"your sang froid is admirable. You are^— how do

CHANCE IN CHAINS 153

you call it*? — cool as a cucumber. Froid comme
un concomhre. Look at me; I tremble all over,
moir

Basil shrugged his shoulders. "What is the
use*?" he said briefly. "I have been nervous
enough up to the present, but now the moment has
arrived I have just got to keep cool. The biggest
strain is on me, and if I fail now all our plans
are over and it means" — he threw out his hands
with a foreign gesture — "well, we won't talk of
what it means."

"You are marvellous !" said the excitable little
Frenchman. "You have no tremor, no compunc-
tion."

Basil shook his head. "I am strung up to go
through with it," he answered, "and take what
comes — fortune or prison. As for compunction, it
seems to me a good deed to rob the proprietors of
this hell if one can, considering all the stories I
have heard during the few hours I have been here,
and the evil passions I have seen displayed on all
sides. And, moreover, we do it for the sake of
science, to confer an inestimable benefit on the
world!"

154 CHANCE IN CHAINS

"Bien" Deschamps answered. "Now, have
you got the card absolutely safe*? Let's compare
it with mine for the last time."

From out of his pocket Basil drew an oblong
slip of card. Upon it, written in a cypher in-
vented by himself and Deschamps, in which they
had perfected themselves during the last week or
two, were a series of numbers. Above each num-
ber was marked the time — 9:5, 9:15, etc., etc."

They went through the cards together finding
them to correspond in every detail.

"And now for the watches," said Deschamps.
From a kit bag in the comer of the room he pro-
duced a leather case, containing two handsome
gold chronometers. "I have kept them there un-
til now," he said, "in order that they might not
become magnetised by the electric work I have
been doing."

With the utmost care and nicety he adjusted the
timepieces so that they did not vary, one from the
other, by a single second. Then he gave one
chronometer to Basil, and returned the other to
the portmanteau.

"I have been playing all the day," Basil said.

CHANCE IN CHAINS 155

"with the hundred and fifty louis we reserved for
that. Sometimes I lost, sometimes I won. But
I spread my money about with supreme indiffer-
ence. Always I put down a maximum stake, and
I played upon a number. Of course, I lost many
times, but I am sure I gave the desired impression
to the croupiers at our table where the marked
wheel is, that I was a wealthy gambler indifferent
as to whether I won or lost. Towards the end
I had a stroke of luck. I had put nine louis on
7, and 7 turned up. So that I won 6,300 francs.
I had heard that the rule forbidding all tips to
the croupiers had been recently abrogated; so that
I feed the men in my neighbourhood magnificently.
I shall get a seat at our table all right if I am
punctual when the Casino opens for the evening

play."

"And what are you going to do now?" Emile
asked anxiously. "Will you stay here with me'?"

"I don't think so, mon ami^'"' Basil returned.
"We have worked out every possible detail. The
more we talk about it, the more nervous we shall
become. I shall go to my room, have a little fish
and a single glass of wine, and then stroll round

156 CHANCE IN CHAINS

the gardens in the fresh night air until it is time to
go in." He held out his hand. "Good luck, old
fellow!"

Deschamps grasped it and nodded, too full of
emotion and excitement to answer.

Then Gregory quietly left the room and de-
scended to his own

As he walked down the passage he heard the
click of the lock being shot into its place and
knew that Deschamps would be alone with his
machinery till midnight.

CHAPTER IX

Into the glittering rooms Basil Gregory strolled.

He had left the Hotel Malmaison but five
minutes before. The metal check for his light
coat and opera hat was in his waistcoat pocket,
and as he walked slowly up the Atrium, smoking
a cigarette, he seemed — even in an environment
where some of the most important people in the
world congregate — a very distinguished person in-
deed.

As he came up to the doors quick-eyed officials
in their black frock coats — carrion-crows people
have called them — ^made their bows and pushed
open one of the great cedar portals.

Already the word had gone round that this tall
and cool gentleman was an unknown millionaire,
who was pleased to amuse himself for an hour or
two at the tables.

Basil entered. People were still dining. The
rooms were full — they always are full — but of the

157

158 CHANCE IN CHAINS

ordinary and hungry crowd who do little more
than venture a few francs, and hardly dare take a
chair at any table when one is vacant.

Basil sauntered up to the right hand table in
the large central salon. Some people call this
table the "suicides' table," others give that sinister
designation to another. Be that as it may, Basil
found a chair and sat down — on the left of the
croupier who spins the wheel and his colleague
who sits behind him on a higher chair and directs
the whole operations of the table.

Basil sat down, took out his watch and placed it
upon the space of green baize before him. Then
he drew twenty or thirty gold coins from his
pocket, and a couple of five hundred franc notes.

The official who sat above the man who turned
the wheel smiled down at the newcomer. It was
a slack time. The table was half deserted, the
rush of the diners had not yet begun.

Basil took out his cypher card and placed it
carefully behind a little rampart of gold coins.

The croupier spun, and before the "Rien ne va
plus''' was uttered Basil had shoved his usual max-
imum of nine louis upon number 3 — sitting as

CHANCE IN CHAINS 159

he did close to the wheel which divided the two
long tables.

Twenty-eight turned up. Basil saw his money
raked away, with the few other stakes that were
adventured, with a broad smile.

No one could possibly have noticed the quick
glance he gave at his watch. But that glance
signified to him that for the next five minutes
number "11" would be certain to win.

He put the maximum upon number 1 1 .

He glanced again at his watch, as the croupiers
began to croak their "Faites vos jeux^'' and gazed
moodily round the table, which was now begin-
ning to fill up. At that moment — a supreme mo-
ment to him — ^he was conscious of no particular
emotion at all.

When asked about it afterwards by a certain
intimate friend he always said, "Really, I felt
nothing whatever."

The weary yellow-faced slave of the wheel did
his duties.

All the money upon the table, at that moment,
was upon even chances, upon the dozens, the
transversales^ or the columns. No single person

i6o CHANCE IN CHAINS

had played direct upon a number — a thirty-five to
one chance.

The big triangles of red and black at the far
end of the table were both piled with gold and
notes, the borders of several numbers were covered
with adventurous stakes.

There was a swift "click" as the ball went
home.

Number ii had turned up.

Basil Gregory had the impulse to rise from his
seat and go striding up and down those glittering
halls, hugging his secret, spurning those other
players who knew nothing.

Everything had occurred exactly as he had
planned with Emile Deschamps. At the precise
moment arranged between them the wireless mes-
sage had come to the spinning ball and it had
fallen, as it was directed, obedient to the unseen
and unsuspected powers of science.

He drew towards him six thousand three hun-
dred francs — two hundred and fifty two English
p>ounds I

He looked at his watch again. The next slot in
the wheel that was to be magnetised was 33. But

CHANCE IN CHAINS 161

it was not yet time. It liad been arranged that he
was to lose occasionally in order to divert sus-
picion

He placed the maximum of nine louis upon
zero. To his consternation, zero won. Again he
received the enormous sum of six thousand and
odd francs. He leant back in his chair, out-
wardly indifferent and calm, but throbbing in
every nerve and pulse with wild excitement. It
was true then!

A few hundred yards away, in the little bed-
room on the roof, Emile Deschamps was pressing
key after key with absolute precision. And as he
pressed the little spinning ball, flung from the
hand of the croupier, must perforce obey the in-
visible power that vibrated through the air

That he had won upon zero — when he meant to
lose — seemed only a minor incident in the riot of
his progress.

The one man in the crowded halls of that palace
— the one and only man — who could control For-
tune herself, he sat there outwardly cold and im-
passive, while his mind and nerves were torn and
wrenched as by opposing forces.

i62 CHANCE IN CHAINS

He was now more than five hundred pounds to
the good, and as yet he had only played one coup
of the many agreed upon by the secret code.

Already the people at the table were glancing at
each other and at the impassive young man who
staked a maximum each time, and had already
won twice en plein — so unprecedented a thing to
do.

He was a Russian prince, it was whispered.
His French was so perfect — though it was not
absolutely the French of a Frenchman — that the
whispering people round the table thought he
could be none other than a Russian. That he was
English never occurred to anyone, for no English-
man speaks French as Basil Gregory spoke it.

The wheel was turning again, and everyone
watched to see what the unperturbed figure by the
croupier would do.

This time, with a glance at his cypher card, and
also at his watch, Basil backed red and not a
number.

Each number in the wheel has Its correspond-
ing colour, red or black, and it was as easy for him
to win on an even chance as it was upon a chance

CHANCE IN CHAINS 163

of thirty-five to one. He backed red, and, far
away at the top of the Hotel Malmaison, Emile
Deschamps pressed the key which magnetised the
slot 18 in the wheel upon the green table — 18
being a red number.

Basil placed the maximum upon red — that is,
two hundred and forty pounds.

Red turned up. He had now won nearly eight
hundred pounds, and round his chair were grouped
a crowd of people three feet deep.

People were flocking from other tables, drawn
by that nameless unknown mental telegraphy
which tells the whole Casino when big wins are
being made.

The whole of the great rooms became electric
with an atmosphere of excitement. There was
not a sound as the people thronged to Basil's table
— at Monte Carlo the greatest successes, the most
disastrous failures, happen in silence.

But, in that tense atmosphere, there was more
than sound — there was a pressing together and
focussing of human minds, converging upon one
spot to witness the battle.

"Failes vos jeux^ messieurs"

i64 CHANCE IN CHAINS

"Le jeu est fait.'"

"Rien ne va plus.''

A rattle, a hushed silence — the player who had
put a maximum of nine louis upon number 13 had
lost!

Men and women nodded and whispered, whis-
pered and nodded. "Monsieur's luck was about
to change, n'est-ce 'pas?" "It is not going to be a
big run after all, hein?"

Once more the wheel spun.

Monsieur, with extraordinary daring, placed
the maximum upon 6.

Six turned up.

In front of Basil Gregory was a pile of gold,
still more important and significant a bundle of
crinkled blue and white notes.

He took the notes up with cool deliberation,
folded many of them, and put them into the breast
pocket of his coat, stretched out his hand, and
put the maximum upon black.

"Noir, dix-neuf," the croupier croaked, and
another two hundred and forty pounds was pushed
over by the rakes to add to Basil's store.

CHANCE IN CHAINS 165

By this time almost everyone at the table was
playing as Basil played.

If he staked upon an 8, the number was
plastered and covered with gold and notes.

Each time he won and by now a rumour of
something utterly unique had spread through the
whole vast building, other and lesser punters won
with him. When he was up three thousand
pounds against the Bank, the Bank had lost quite
seventeen thousand.

The air was electric. The word had gone
round. Habitues of the Casino crowded to watch
one of those extraordinary nights of play which
occur now and then — far more rarely than is sup-
posed— and which are talked about for long after-
wards. New-comers joined the throng, and still
Basil Gregory sat impassive in his place, conscious
that he was the centre of attention, but allowing
nothing whatever to divert him from his purpose.

He glanced at his watch.

Stakes were being put upon the table timidly.
The players were waiting to see what he was go-
ing to do.

i66 CHANCE IN CHAINS

He glanced at his cypher-card. The moment
was marked with a tiny cross. He was now to
adventure a bigger coup than ever before.

He placed the maximum of nine louis upon
number 20 — standing to win six thousand francs.
He placed the maximum of sixty louis upon the
line that covered the six figures from 16 to 21,
including 20. Here also he stood to win 6,000
francs if 20 turned up.

Then he staked on black. Number 20 upon the
roulette wheel is a black number, so here, again, he
played the maximum and stood to win the highest
possible. Finally he backed the middle dozen of
the 36 numbers, here also staking the maximum of
150 louis, again making it possible to win 6,000
francs.

In that quiet place, where any outward expres-
sion of excitement or emotion is instantly sup-
pressed, there came a low, sighing sound like the
fluttering of leaves in the wind.

It was the spectators whispering to each other.

Such high play as this was beyond the experi-
ence of almost everyone. This time, getting more
cautious, the other players wagered heavily against

CHANCE IN CHAINS 167

Basil. They thought such phenomenal luck as he
had had could not possibly continue, and for the
first time during the evening a slight sardonic smile
came upon the young man's face.

He knew, they did not, with what certainty
number 20 would turn up.

The wheel swung, the ball spun. ''Noir et
vingt^' croaked the croupier.

And now, as the rakes pursued their remoreless
way, and swept in all the stakes upon the table
except Basil's maximums, there was a low murmur
of surprise and consternation. Anywhere else but
in the Casino it would have been a babel of
tongues.

In one single minute Basil Gregory had won
the huge sum of 24,000 francs — 960 English
pounds.

Standing by the director of the table, who sat
above and behind the croupier who spun the wheel,
there was now seen a tall and unobtrusive man
with a pale face, a short black beard, and wearing
evening dress. It was one of the heads of the
permanent staff of the Administration — a mysteri-
ous being who only entered the rooms upon special

i68 CHANCE IN CHAINS

occasion, a person invested with unknown powers
— one of the gods I

Basil had emptied his mind of thought.

He had focussed his whole being upon what he
was doing. The huge pile of wealth before him
affected him no more than if the notes and gold —
and by now there were many notes and but little
gold — were but so many counters. Mechanically
he folded bundle after bundle of thousand franc
notes and placed them in the inner pocket of his
coat.

And then, in the stir and rustle, he heard a sharp
exclamation — unremarked by the crowd around in
that moment of tension, but like an arrow through
his own consciousness.

He looked up.

Opposite him, down towards the end of the
table, two ladies were sitting. He had been
vaguely conscious of them before, but, during all
his play, he had made a point of not allowing his
thoughts or glances to be distracted by the other
players.

It was from one of those ladies, the young one,
that he, and he alone, heard a little gasping cry.

CHANCE IN CHAINS 169

It was the girl he loved I It was Ethel Mc-
Mahon !

A mist seemed to rise up from the table as if
water had been poured upon a heated plate of
steel. For a moment it swayed and blotted out
everything. His mind seemed to be a turning
wheel. He felt little needles pricking at the back
of his eyes, his blood congealed into a jelly, and
the palms of his hands suddenly became covered
with a film of perspiration.

Ethel I ... It was Ethel! And as the mist
cleared away and his mind came to attention, he
knew that this was no illusion, but that in very
flesh and blood Ethel and her mother were sitting
almost opposite to him playing at this table, play-
ing roulette in the world's greatest gambling hell !

The impulse to call out was almost unbearable,
but he restrained it with an iron effort.

He stared hungrily at the two women, and as he
did so he saw Ethel and Mrs. McMahon look up
and meet his gaze. He saw this also — in their
eyes was envy and consternation, but not the
slightest glint of recognition.

^\nd then he remembered his disguise — the

170 CHANCE IN CHAINS

spectacles, the shaved moustache, the foreign
clothes, and swarthy complexion — and he realised
that their interest in him was no more than that of
any of the others.

The whole crowd, the croupiers also, were wait-
ing to see what he would do.

The "faites vos jeux" was rapping out at him
from all sides of the table.

He knew that he must have an instant to think
or else go mad. With careless gesture he threw
a couple of louis upon the table before him, not
caring where they fell, and once again the wheel of
chance revolved.

What did this mean? There was no answer
to his agonised mental inquiry.

He saw Ethel and her mother bending over a
card covered with figures — one of those system
cards so frequently seen at the tables, so certain
to end in disaster.

He saw also the pallor of their faces. He
realised in a flash of intuition that they were los-
ing heavily.

How to warn them, how to tell them that he
and he only possessed the secret key to Fortune

CHANCE IN CHAINS 171

tonight he could not think, he could not divine.

Again he glanced at his card. Habit had be-
come mechanical. His watch pointed to ten
minutes past the hour. His directions stood clear
and plain in the cypher before him.

He sorted out his notes and did what was di-
rected.

Up there, on the top of the Hotel Malmaison,
Emile Deschamps was even at that moment press-
ing a certain key. The result was as inevitable
as sure as Fate.

And as Fate or, rather, the cunning of science,
the immense trickery of the two young geniuses,
spoke, Basil saw that Ethel McMahon and her
mother were very hard hit.

He watched them slant-wise from the ends of
his spectacles, realising, more definitely than ever,
that they were playing upon some fallacious
scheme, and being sure — with a jerk of memory
— that old Mrs. McMahon had unearthed one of
her late husband's systems, and was pursuing it
to her own ruin.

Again he won, and by now he was a rich man.
The excitement was tremendous, when suddenly

172 CHANCE IN CHAINS

the tall man in evening dress announced a sus-
pension of play.

Basil Gregory had "broken the bank."

There is a prevalent idea, among those who do
not know much about Monte Carlo, that breaking
the bank means that the whole play of the Casino
is stopped for the night on which it occurs.

This is quite wrong.

"Breaking the bank" simply means that the re-
sources of a particular table, out of the dozen or
so tables on which roulette is played, are ex-
hausted for a moment. In five minutes new
money is brought and play goes on.

It was so now. There was a hurried consulta-
tion, and in no time lackeys were bearing oak cof-
fers bound with brass, filled with money, to Basil's
table, accompanied by three or four frock-coated
officials.

The money was spread out in rows before the
principal paying croupier, and six minutes had
hardly passed when once more the calm, passion-
less voice of the director was calling upon the
players to "make their game,"

But in the interim, as Basil Gregory leant back

CHANCE IN CHAINS 173

in his chair, he had heard, with ears quickened by-
anxiety and love, these words from Ethel to her
mother — words spoken in English:

"But, mother, we cannot go on."

Then the answer, in a sort of wail of despair:
"We must go on, Ethel. This next coup is cer-
tain to put us right. We must pay no attention
to the extraordinary luck of that )^oung Russian
nobleman opposite. We must adhere to your
father's system. If this coup goes wrong, then
we can onl)^ play twice again, and all our money
will be exhausted. But I have every faith in your
father's system."

Then Basil heard something about "courage,"
and, finally, a whispered lamentation that "our
capital is so small."

Three numbers upon his cypher-card had passed
by during the rebringing of money to the table.

Glancing at his watch, he saw that the time was
ripe for him to play upon 16.

He was gathering up the necessary money to
put upon the board, when the sallow man from
the Administration pushed through the people sur-
rounding him and whispered in his ear.

174 CHANCE IN CHAINS

If he liked, the official did not press it at all,
monsieur should have the opportunity of playing
three coups against the bank. That is to say, that
the ordinary maximum should be entirely abro-
gated in favour of monsieur, and any sum he cared
to wager upon an even chance, the Administration
would be pleased to meet.

The colloquy was very rapid. Deschamps had
told Basil that such a thing might happen — such
an offer be made to him. When a player has tem-
porarily suspended the game at a certain table —
or, in common parlance, "broken the bank" — the
authorities are nearly always ready for a final sen-
sational coup.

Basil nodded. "Certainly," he said, pulling
out bundle after bundle of notes. "I will play
200,000 francs on red."

The number 16 is a red number. Basil wagered
almost his whole winnings of that night without a
tremor.

There was now a dead silence round the table.
People clustered about it ten deep in the vain
effort to see what was going on. Yet, while the
wheel was turned and the ball spun, the only un-

CHANCE IN CHAINS 175

concerned person about this gigantic stake was
Basil Gregory himself.

No one else put a single coin upon the table,
save only a trembling old lady who sat by a young
and lovely girl — an obstinate old lady, clinging
to a hope.

Basil was given notes to the value of £16,000.

The most notable thing about the Casino, with
its enormous resources, is the absolute impassibility
of its officials.

Again Basil wagered £8,000 — this time upon
black.

He won, and as his money was being paid to
him a loud murmur rose from the crowd — a loud
murmur, broken by a sharp and pulsing cry.

A tall and beautiful girl had risen from her
feet and had fallen in a deep swoon into the arms
of the bystanders behind her.

There was an immediate struggle. The electric
tension of the moment was over. The well-
dressed crowd surged and almost fought in a panic
of snapped nerves and suddenly relaxed excite-
ment.

People came surging from all sides. The other

176 CHANCE IN CHAINS

tables were deserted, and, far away through the
great halls, those who were playing trente-et-quar-
ante rose from their cards with listening ears.

In that supreme moment Basil Gregory did not
lose his head. He gathered up his enormous win-
nings. The pockets of his coat bulged with
wealth. And Ethel McMahon was being carried
out into the Atrium, followed by her mother in a
state of wild hysteria, before he rose from his
seat.

He took six-thousand-franc notes from one of
his pockets. To each of the six croupiers he gave
a note.

Then he sauntered quietly out into the huge
hall.

Under the brilliant electric lights which gleamed
upon the marble he saw little groups of people —
each group seeming quite small in the immensity
— talking earnestly together.

As he came out among them every head was
turned, though of Ethel and her mother he saw
not a trace.

But as he went to the cloak-room, and deliv-
ered his metal ticket, two or three commissionaires

CHANCE IN CHAINS 177

came up to him with awed and respectful faces.

"That young lady?* he said, "and the elder
one with her?"

"It was nothing, monsieur," one of the men
hastened to say. "They are two English ladies
staying at the pension in the Rue Grimaldi. Your
success, monsieur, unnerved them. They have
been sent home in a voiture^

Basil nodded as he was helped into his long,
dark coat.

With a smile he distributed a few gold coins,
and then, alone, unattended, he walked out into
the warm, aromatic night, and strolled to his ad-
jacent hotel among flower-bordered paths, under
the twin lights of electricity and the great, red
moon of the South.

At the Hotel de Paris, at the Metropole, at
Ciro's, people were gathering for gay supper
parties.

As he entered the huge, brilliantly decorated
lounge of the Malmaison, groups of wealthy peo-
ple were smoking a preliminary cigarette before
supper. Some of them — ^many of them — recog-
nised him, and nodded and whispered to each

178 CHANCE IN CHAINS

other, but he entered the lift and went straight
to his own room.

He turned up the electric lights, and locked the
door. And then, from pocket and pocket, he
poured out crackling, crumpled heaps of notes,
heavy handfuls of gold — the wealth of which he
had dreamed.

After a minute or two, without even locking the
door of his sitting-room, he stumbled out of it and
up the stairs to the servants' quarters.

He gave the signal knocks.

He was at once admitted to the dingy little
bedroom-workshop.

Emile Deschamps was there. The French-
man's face was as grey as evening ice.

He was staring at his apparatus in a sort of
stupor, and by his side the chronometer ticked.

Emile gave a loud shout as Basil tumbled into
the place.

"It is done, then^" he gasped. "Mon ami,
it is a thing done^"

All grimy as he was Basil led his friend down
into his sitting-room.

CHANCE IN CHAINS 179

At two o'clock on the afternoon of the next day
two English ladies, accompanied by a little,
swarthy Frenchman, with a dressing-case which
never left his hands, rolled out of the station of
Monte Carlo, en route for Paris.

For two days after this Monsieur Montoyer
was observed to walk distractedly through the
salons and occasionally to place a maximum upon
a single number. Monsieur Montoyer did not re-
peat his successes, and those who followed his play
cursed him and their ov/n credulity deeply and
silently.

The great night when Fortune smiled upon the
"young Russian nobleman" is still remembered by
the assiduous acolytes of Chance. It is talked
about, and given as an instance to new-comers of
what bold, indifferent play can accomplish.

Nobody connects Sir Basil Gregory, Bart., the
head of the great firm of Deschamps, Gregor)' and
Co., which has revolutionised wireless telegraphy,
with the spectacled, clean-shaven young gentle-
man who made such a sensation one night in the
Casino at Monte Carlo.

Sir Basil and Lady Gregory spend almost all

i8o CHANCE IN CHAINS

their days in the charming old house they have
bought near Falmouth.

But on the Riviera there is an old, old lady —
the well-known Madame McMahon — who still
haunts the gambling hells of the Continent. She
is a recognised figure. She has a marvellous sys-
tem which never comes off, but when she gets into
difficulties with the proprietors of her pension^
mysterious telegraphic drafts upon the local bank
always arrive in the nick of time, either from
Cornwall or from Quimperle, in Brittany, where
Monsieur Edouard and Monsieur Charles Carnet
have a house, and are churchwardens of the unique
cathedral.

THE END

^1

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